Two Nouns

Door.
A noun suggesting
Restriction
Protection
Opportunity.

As a child
I was taught to respect
Closed doors
And I wondered at the irregular
Timing
At which my parents’ door
Was shut and locked.

Later
I grew alert
To open doors
And what secrets may be revealed
Were I to cross the entryway.

Doors
Became more
Than a slab of wood
With knob and lock.
They became things
Of adventure
And misadventure.

My life has been shaped
By doors
I’ve opened
And doors
I’ve sealed.

Wisdom
Comes to the one
Who knows
Which handle to palm
And which to avoid.

I am still a novice
At doors.

One night
I opened her door.
One day she closed it again.

More than a decade has passed
As I linger near her door.
I have not knocked
Nor has she opened.
Were she to do so
I am uncertain I would enter.

Every door has a threshold
A noun
Suggesting the point at which
Something begins
Circumstances change.

Only a fool
Would see the door
Ignoring the threshold.

Thresholds do not protect doors
But doors protect thresholds.

I have never tripped across a door.
But every threshold may conceal
A line of demarcation
That has power to destroy
A fool.