Vallum Hadriani

Time stretches out before us

as a series of towers, Hadrian’s Wall

into the horizon

the dead still make their rounds

boots now light on the flagstones

keeping their watch over the living

marching, axes held at their sides

they know soon enough

we will descend into our vapors

and join their step

along the walls of time

into the horizon

all we will miss is our bones

and the touch of our flesh

Reviews

[John the Baptist]

As I recall, Hadrian's Wall was a barrier between Scotland and England erected by a Roman emperor. It's an interesting image for a poem about time and death, maybe because of its timelessness. Hadrian and all of his legions have long since passed on, and as the poem points out, all of us will eventually join them. The wall is a symbol of time, extending endlessly into the horizon, meaning the future. "all we will miss is our bones/ and the touch of our flesh." Indeed, when the time comes, all we will have is spirit, which may be more than enough.

[JR]

I thought the top of the wall was a great metaphor for time, the wall itself the dividing line between the living and the dead. I have this idea in my head that when we become pure spirit, we will miss the body and the emotions that come with it... something I've been chewing on for awhile now. Thanks John, sometimes your reviews bring my deeper into the idea than the poem did.