Der Mauer

Der Mauer

The female guard with black hair and a gun
made me smile everyday, from the moment I saw her,
until the moment I realised why she was there.
Stood on the wall that ran through my city like a scar
I smiled at her, my breath piercing the air,
And still she stood still with her dark eyes masked in hate.

The day was like any other, with their dark towers bearing down on the city
But there were whispers, in lonely corridors. Powerful whispers.
Silent screams of liberty amongst the architecture of captivity
People were moving, the city was moving.
It was almost freezing but the streets were boiling over.

I cycled home to find what the news was, and saw her
But her eyes were nervous and vulnerable, her rifle tightly gripped.
There was an energy in the air, when you can feel that something is going to happen, but you don’t know what

Everyone was walking in different directions but we all met at the same place
The crowds gazed up at the wall; a man was shouting into a megaphone, his voice was ominous and muffled
We didn’t need to listen, we knew what was happening.
And as the men posed for the cameras with pickaxes, I saw her face peering over, her army cap in her hand, her rifle on the floor

Strike after strike, the wall came down, each brick felt like another weight off my chest
She stared at me ‘til the darkness crept in, and then it came down.
All that I had, all that she wanted exploded in that moment and fell softly
Like scorched paper.

The guard crossed the gap and stood in front of me
The sparks from the engineer’s flames flew behind her and eyes shone green, where before they were black
She gave me her hand and the wall, the guns, the money
meant nothing.