Lynne Stewart is a radical human rights lawyer held imprisoned at FMC Carswell, the same prison as Marie Mason. She is battling cancer at this moment and has been given 12 months to live. This poem is dedicated to her and the current fight to grant her compassionate release. More information is available at lynnestewart.org
No Fences
I’ve been on the wrong side of too many fences
Their lamentations creaking sour
Protests of possession.
Dissonant in any ear
And in mine, so much…
The coyote’s song is sweeter so,
By far
A harmony with air
And he owns nothing but the world itself
So let me be
Where the wind blows free
Through rocky arches, twisting trees
To fill the breathless sky
So wide and full of light
Unsubdivided, indivisible,
This vaulted blue cathedral,
Just here,
Where we disappear alone,
Where we are made whole again
Together
There are no fences here
At all.