“Gated”

I don’t want to live

In the gated community

With HOA social contracts

or on the land of exclusivity

I don’t want to own

What should be shared

With use for all who walk upon

Sand, dirt or grass uncared

I don’t want to dwell

In spaces of holier than

With airs of hierarchy swell

Of tellings of who & when

The land was inhabited here

Before time remembered, in awe

The beings who commingled

Peacefully roamed free, no bylaws

Against trouble, yet also intimacy

Gates, fences, & walls defend

What is relinquished with locked gates?

An unhinging, closure to befriend

Entering here through an opening

A humble threshold between what’s ours

Aged through time of welcoming

Swinging free into presence of hours

I am here to be with you,

What’s yours is mine, to greet

What’s mine is yours, too

Invitation for intimacy, to meet

I want to live only within

Within your gates and mine

Where fields beyond us merge

Where our hearts combine