Tell The Story: Break Down My Walls; Told

This story is about a girl who has autism, or something along those lines. She goes to a regular school, but she never talks to anyone in coherent speech. She has awesome writing, however, and earns top grades in literature for her beautiful poetry and amazing stories. To her classmates, she is an enigma. One boy is especially curious, as he wants to know how she makes her stories. One day, without any context, the girl walks up to him and leaves a poem on his desk:

Break down my walls

Free the princess inside

Beyond Glimmer Falls

Trap incoming tide

Slick grey rocks chase lemming seals yet -

And I may still call

Through my imprisonment.

Falling through waters

Swept from the tide

Crash through my castle

Built deep inside

Where storm meets dawn

And flower meets day

Orange carnations are hidden

Away.

Break down my walls

Let me sail, far and free

I built up my satchel

Now it's shaping me

Frail yellow spring beauties

In metal fields wet -

Watered by tears and

Grown by His chariot.

Break down my walls

Free the princess inside

Crash through my castle

It's built deep inside

I built my satchel

Now it's shaping me

Break through my walls

Let me sail, far and free.

Confusing, right? Certainly. But the boy is not deterred. He wants to discover what hides inside this mysterious girl.

Actually, this poem is a cry for help: "Break down my walls!" The girl sees herself as a princess trapped in a tower, watching as her schoolmates laugh, play, and sing. Glimmer Falls is a place she often goes in her imagination and consequently pops up in her stories a lot. "Slick grey rocks" are the teachers and pressures on the children to be normal, be this or be that. "Lemming seals" is a reference to the way she sees the kids chasing each other, following fashions, competing - it's like lemmings following each other off a cliff.

She describes the way to get through to her as being swept through the waters separating them by the tide. Her castle is her withdrawal into herself. "Where storm meets dawn and flower meets day" is a reference both to a real place and a getaway in her imagination. Orange carnations are her favorite flower.

Her 'satchel' is actually the walls she has erected to distance herself from everyone. But now, her walls are shaping her life and restricting her so she cannot talk freely. Yellow spring beauties are her frail hopes and dreams, but they are growing in a barren place - there is not much chance of them succeeding. Her tears water her hopes and His (Jesus') comfort, protection, and providence grow them.

The last stanza is a summary of her plight, begging for someone to reach out and free her: "Break through my walls, let me sail, far and free."