photo: ralph murre
Soul Pane
by Jim
Landwehr
The window to his soul
is small, soot covered
and very hard to open.
Its counterweights broke long ago;
he meant to fix them but
it was easier to leave the window shut.
Any time someone
opens it
they see the real him
so he slams it on their fingers.
The drapes are drawn
most of the time
shut to the sunlight of others.
His soul resents the
isolation
and wishes a pane would break
or the drapes would catch fire.
The window to his
soul
is tightly shut
and he intends to keep it that way.
~ first published in Verse Wisconsin
