CHILDREN OF PAN
(Pan, Greek god of the wild)
From birth they run with
instincts of wild ponies,
free of shoes and stockings,
dashing randomly through trees
They too have been warned
of broken glass, gravel,
burrs, scorpions, yet
they scatter without warning,
galloping after an uncertain scent
They cut heels, smash toes, anything
for the pleasure of bare skin,
against grass, mud, tree bark,
bound only by their urge
to scamper unshod and unshoed
Neither reason nor fear
will deter these descendants
of satyrs and unicorns
Reason turns them into stones;
fear into swans with no water