Walls

This poem was originally written as part of a school project. What began as an assignment quickly became something more. It captured the walls I had built around myself and the quiet ache behind them.

Years later, while revisiting old files, I came across it again and realized the story had changed. Or rather, I had. The Lord had been breaking, reshaping, and rebuilding me in ways I could not have imagined then.

This poem holds both moments, then and now. Learning. Unlearning. Becoming. 

Being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.
Philippians 1:6 NKJV

Walls, Then and Now 

Maybe my walls rise high as towers
Built in frozen hours over time
I don’t doubt your carefully constructed theories
For my walls are cold as ice 

My walls are fenced high like mounts
So even if you clamber and climb
Please do watch out for the barbed wires
Watch your step, and mind your fall 

I may have hidden my emotions
And probably my being
So there’s no going out
And definitely no coming in 

I don’t like guests, though some I host
Stay too long, and I’ll quietly ghost
I patch the cracks, remain alone
Build, build, build… do not postpone

Deep down I wait for someone to see
The real me, hiding patiently
For someone brave enough to try
’Cause I can’t tear these walls, no, not I 

So, take your time, but hurry too
Chip by chip, till light breaks through
Each strike may seem too small to count
Yet every chip will wear them down 

It might as well take many weeks
But every chip renders it weak
And when they fall, heavy and loud
A mighty reminder that walls wear down 

Alas, the walls have fallen
The person behind is a force to reckon with
I’ve met and known her for twenty-three
A new version of her is what I see 

A brave one with smiles on her face
Learning to command the space she holds
One given beauty for ashes
Moving like royalty, she is a daughter of a King 

I do not mind her, this new one
She walks unshaken by fear or shame
Quiet lies that built the wall
Have finally fallen, like Jericho’s fame 

Now she builds
Not walls to enclose
But a community to gather those
Who hear the Messiah’s call 

The time of hiding is over
It’s a war outside
Walls down
Rise, and take your place