The Charm Was Broken
     
       by Laurie Lee Didesch

I was locked away as in a fairytale—imagine an enchanted forest 
or a tower under a spell. The crickets hummed and the birds 
went on singing while I remained mum. I was neither drugged 
nor confined to a dungeon. I held the key on a string, and I myself 
was the keeper. But today, I awoke thinking of the teeming earth—
of tangled roots and animals in their burrows. And behold, the door 
was slightly opened. The entering light showed a layer of dust 
and once used items: Kerr mason jars, ballpoint pens with dried up
ink and a pair of spectacles not recently worn for I had given up 
looking out the windows. The new day drew me forth, and pushing 
on the door, I began to recall meaning beyond these walls—sweeping 
sky and breadth of land bound not even by the horizon. And imagine 
this limitless feeling inside you—the possibilities, the exuberance. 
I dug my toes into the loam, and the past receded, as did my cell 
that I had worked so hard to build. Faults and missteps fell from
my pockets and scattered like rollaway marbles, no longer weighing
me down. The charm was broken. And at last, the prisoner was free.