You have come from a great distance
and you find an obstacle before you of some substance.
Say it is a wall.
You think of all the obstacles that have been placed before you
the distance and the threats and the people
the hunger and the heat and the blisters and the locusts
– were there locusts?
you have been too fevered to remember –
and the fevers!
It has been a long voyage to get here.

You think of where you are going
and the people behind the wall:
rebels
revolutionaries
people who throughout history
do not do what is told of them by others
who ignore rules
defy them as unjust
and make new rules
as befit a new people.

Surely, then
this wall is a test
of ingenuity and inspiration.
Only those who truly want it
will pass into the land
and you’ve come too far
to back out now, haven’t you?
What is this wall
but another thing to fall
before you?