“The heart-shackles are not as you think”

The heart-shackles are not as you think.

You are not imprisoned by authorities, pinioned
to a guard on the one and other hand,
enduring only to be hauled
before the judge.
No.
This heart
is a three-masted barque
rigged for roaring forties and far distant lands,
whose shackles will secure the wings billowing in every breath of wind.

After a line in Mary Oliver “When the Roses Speak, I Pay Attention” from Thirst, Beacon Press, 2006

Clare Bryden “The heart-shackles are not as you think”, Dream Catcher, Issue #51, 30 July 2025.