From Here To There Poem by Fran Spear

Some get to hop to it, from here to there
or others hop away from it; to here from there!

others fly away from it - the here to here?
for the circle
always,
Always.
brings you back to where here started

As lemmings some jump to it, imagining
a feather bed breaks their fall

Still. They never answer. Either way.

And still-others
sit,
immovable,
unseen - death-like stance
still waiting as motionless as the stone

The tune of the bard?
engrosses, envelopes, enraptures
to carry one to a a way out too,
Going from here to there

If here
is where I wanted to be,
wanted
for you or him, or black, albino or everything in between?
No.
emancipation would never be, so happy in the here

Hand to hand, toe to toe or anything in between
here has to be God-awful, ghastly, unlivable,
for the there to be at all

But.

The Romans made it a word
speaking not of effort to jump,
or flight or immobility, no.
Simply.
from one hand to another, a movement from,
taken from his hand? or softly fallen?
either? neither? a juggling afar?

but not far
Simple.
from one hand to another.
As the left is to the right.

To set free the mangled ankle that can still
walk
the mangled soul that can't,


Then
Atop Confederate Hill one morning I heard,
a voice, then several,
in a guttural sort of a way

Voices. Yes.

At Gettysburg one furnace-blasted day
both sides speaking
as an alternate to their deaths, that Union boy went up that hill
the Confederate came down

Both free. Both dead. too

But they spent that day as brothers are won't to say,
to sisters they love and will never see
Again.

So I was to them and they to me
a gathering of love to tell me

To tell me what Gettysburg was all about


Do it yourself.

be free of the chain, of the fear of the load
of the road you'll face all alone

It is better than the fear of the man
and the night and the ankle that won't ever mend