What separates us,
You and I,
Is this prison wall,
You on one side,
And I on the other.
We tap out our morse code,
Metal upon stone,
Day and night
And wait breathlessly, straining our ears
For the slightest echo,
The faintest response...
The wall has a language
All its own.
It is our only means
Of communication,
Stuck in our cells,
If not for the wall
We would be truly alone.
Sometimes, at night,
I think I can hear you breathing,
But I am not sure if it is not a draft
Passing under the door,
Or just a trick of hearing.
But I am sure you are there.
The thought of you
Keeps me alive in this place.
The wall is my consolation.
I spend long nights
With my ear pressed to the cold stone,
Listening...
For hours I hear nothing,
Just the guards shuffling footsteps
In the corridor.
And then,
I hear you...
Ah, the sweetness of that sound!
The sound of another human soul,
And I wish more than anything
That the wall would dissolve
And I could meet you
Face to face.
But the wall will never let that be.

10/12/2008

Author's Note: Inspired by the writing of Simone Weil. Metaxu is an idea from Plato, which says that the physical world is a link to the divine, but is also a separation frpom it. Simone Weil illustrated this idea with the analogy of two prisoners on either side of a wall. The wall is what separates them, but they can also tap on the wall and thereby communicate through it.

Posted on 10/12/2008
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