the soul

"Is the soul solid, like iron", Mary Oliver asks? "Or is it tender and breakable, like the wings of a moth in the beak of the owl?"

Is it guarded or vulnerable? is it penance or is it mercy? Retribution or forgiveness?

Is it a briar? Is it a thorn? Is it the scent of a violet trampled under foot?

Is it feathered? Something with wings? Or something with barbed-wire? Something with walls?

Is it a castle? A fortress? A stone amongst glass houses?

Is it frail? Or is it impenetrable?

It is both. It is neither.

It is.

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