THE GATE LEFT OPEN

We, of course, were not raised inside
like blanketed colts in a barn stall
and learned instead to stand up

on uneven ground—to wear scars
that would never see a horse show.
What was it then that turned us out

to play—to explore worlds beyond
our imagination? The calling,
yes, that drew us to new places:

thickets and rivers that consoled
the wild we sensed in our blood.
We came and went as we wanted

in another time, out from underfoot,
into a dimension that stretches to heaven
riding the ridge tops with our eyes.