Like the unicorn, <br />they have to need to be; <br />to hear our need for them to be. <br /> <br />Like time, <br />they must creep up on the writer, <br />on the reader, <br />invisible <br />yet with inevitability <br />which cannot be escaped. <br /> <br />Like thieves, <br />they must enter unannounced, <br />take what they must. <br /> <br />Like mice, <br />they must take up residence <br />until there is no longer sustenance for them. <br /> <br />Like bailiffs, <br />they must demand entrance; <br />be admitted; <br />take their just exchange. <br /> <br />Like housekeepers, <br />they must earn their keep <br />by keeping us in all we ask of them. <br /> <br />Like lovers, <br />they must prove themselves <br />part of our lives <br />until our earthly sentence ends the dream. <br /> <br />Like children, <br />they must know their place; <br />then be loved just for themselves <br />beyond life itself. <br /> <br />Like life: <br />revealing its boundlessness <br />in a landscape that stretches out, is limitless. <br /> <br />Writer - reader - <br />care for a metaphor as for one you love: <br />as you love yourself; <br />they are our life-blood: for they tell of what <br />can only be said quietly, with a touch of hand, <br />to those whose heart is listening.<br /><br />Michael Shepherd<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/metaphors-5/
