Chain Reactions
written by: Stephen Kingsnorth
We’re bound to ask if holding tight
finds comfort, fright, from friend or foe.
For links to be encouraged, yet
restriction or security
can both be fruit of such a bond.
‘The ties that bind,’ some celebrate,
while prisoners cuffed in plastic tag;
for some, one’s bracelet, shackle slang,
though charmed for those who’ll bear the weight
when that the fashion – or trad ware.
Around the neck, that saintly shield,
its size no limit, supposed power
though silver claims its own reward.
But when do such become short chain,
enslaving us, relationship?
Chain letters with old threats of curse,
then chain-link as a fence itself;
chain smoking – or the cricket pitch,
imperial as measures go –
so many chains, linked history.
The expectation, once assumed,
that son will follow father’s way,
a weighting laid on time’s despatch;
that chainmail of the errant knight,
old cistern flush with handle hang.
An anchor safer, winds unleashed;
in cotton mill, braking the chain
before it threatens fettered cuffs,
the workers tethered to their craft –
a sequence with a consequence.
NOTE:
Based on the Prompt – Breaking the Chain
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