Don’t fence me in #dVerse #quadrille

What lies beyond, beneath, around
the corner?
Show me a locked door: I’ll spend all day
searching for the key.
For heaven’s sake, never show me a border!
Don’t fence me in, not even
metaphorically –
if I have one incurable obsession it is
curiosity.

© Experimentsinfiction 2021, All Rights Reserved

Written for dVerse

Tonight, De is hosting Quadrille, where the watchword is ‘curiosity.’ The bar opens from 3pm EST: join us for more curious poetry!

The featured image, from Pixabay, is of a curious cat exploring the Colosseum. On a study visit to Rome many moons ago, our history professor was most amused that I could not stop myself from poking about in sewers and going through each and every door to find out what was on the other side. It was the same when I visited the Minoan sites on Crete: I was most upset that the ‘Queen’s apartments’ in Knossos were cordoned off, and I had to charm my way in. The security guard explained that ‘Only the king and the President normally get to see this…’ To which I thought, ‘what the hell do they know or care about Bronze Age prehistory?’

This reminds me of a favourite Heaney poem of mine, ‘Personal Helicon’ which begins:

‘As a child, they could not keep me from wells…’

and ends:

‘…I rhyme
To see myself, to set the darkness echoing.’

From the collection Death of a Naturalist (1966)

And now for some music: