The old wooden fence
Beaten and torn through the years
By the wind and the sudden storms
-all that nature could conspire to bring.
Yet it somehow managed to hold firm
In its simple purpose
To keep the strangers out and the restless in.

Blistered by the scorching sun
And frozen with the winter sleet
Merciless in their approach
To them a barrier to break
In their unstoppable freedom
But the struggle has its toll
And its frame once strong has since grown old

The workmen said its time to take it down
And build a new one in its place
Its tired planks now broken and spent
Unfastened to the point of disgrace
The nails have left gaping the place
Where long they had held firm
The wounds now far beyond repair.

So the members carelessly taken down
And thrown upon a glowing heap
What once were sap-filled limbs
Its young wood firm and green
Now lies kindling dry for the burn
And to the earth from which it sprung
It now solemnly returns.

Old wooden fence it is no more
Nor any sort of wood at all
Simple offspring of the earth
Ashen dust its final call....
But also fire,- and heat and light
It takes its long-awaited flight
Set free from the nails, and the wind and the storm.

(reprise anthem)
And it is restored though vanquished in flame
Now born anew, an ennobled slave
Released to climb unbound through the clouds
A soul set free from the past and the stony ground

And it is reborn a child of the sky
No more to sustain the wound or the pain
Coursing the air, never meant to return
For now it has attained the end forever yearned.

Copyright © 2001, Robert Metivier