Drawbridge ascends
Chains clatter like ancient fangs
Iron groans against the gale
Stirring the moat’s dark glass beneath
Hands that reach
From shadowed banks
Collide with timber’s adamantine flesh
Each plank proclaims: enough
Each rope: a resolute No
Reminding them
That passage is conferred
Never presumed
I stand
Atop the turret
Lantern in grasp
Light quivers across
My skin’s battlements
Sovereign in the chasm
Between intrusion
And sanctum
No shadow trespasses
Without my sanction
No footsteps are received
Without my assent
The world lingers
On the other side
Patient, courteous
Or obliterated
This is my threshold
Not a suggestion
But a fulcrum
Of consequence
