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Mercer Simpson

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The Escapologists

For those behind bars
in  asylums, in prisons,
lovers in exile, in soured marriages,
those unable to escape from wombs or coffins,
others in enclosed routines of offices,
those suffering in hospitals,
the anaesthetised,wheeled down
to their inescapable operating theatres,
all who become the inevitable nightmare walkers
over the sudden precipices of their dreams
trapped by a gunman, hostages
sentenced to appear before a firing squad,
and lastly some in a labyrinth of their own making,
those for whom the words
will never be written down:

Pray for them space, to breathe, to move
along the open road, going wherever they please,
or swimming with the tide under a kind sun,
the shore sandy, easy on the feet,
and for houses with friends always welcoming,
those of like minds whose delight
is in the surprise opening of a present
unwrapping the joy that was unexpected,
and those who asked very little from life
and got much more than they had bargained for,
and others, less simple, who knew the revelations
the sky and sun brought, and starlight and moonlight
in the brilliant reflections across the quiet sea
and the gentle wave music in the bay.
For all this, to come down from the hills
on an early morning with the vast fields
stretching away to the sea, to be running
into laughter with arms open wide,
your arms open too to enclose me
in a world without, at this moment,
an enclosure.

Page(s) 39-40

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