FENCES
Crawling, sprawling, breaching spokes of stone,
With mortared sinews levy wretched rifts
In harmonies of universal tone,
And bridle open play of native gifts.
Weathered, knot-holed, bark-shorn splintered files
Of lumbered planks with unstemmed lust abound
To mar the grace of Beauty's pristine smiles
By rude partitions of the helpless ground.
Frigid, rigid, twisted drawn-out lines,
With legioned sword-points thrust in ravished earth,
Make freedom captive in their sharp confines;
Oppressive sway the measure of their worth;
Barriers -- a rampant man-made curse --
But fences formed by thought are even worse.