If a door were just a door
it would not be the pier
which launced a thousand poems
or a thousand thousand
disintegrated dreams
and fragmented plans.

But a door is just a door,
given meaning by the hordes
of rampaging precedent
spilling upon the disingenuous;
who'll disperse the hoofprints
from their tattered selves--
straining in vain to clarify
all voices to match their tune.

The legacy of countless generations
waging war in the blink of an eye,
where a person sees an entrance
or perceives an exit
and misses the point.
Walk in. Walk out.
Symbolic of nothing.
It is only a door.

We do what we are programmed to do.

02/07/2004

Posted on 02/07/2004
Copyright © 2025 D. Xavier Bari