Walls…still

Here’s link to my poem “A Matter of Perspective”  published in Blue Mountain Review.  You’ll have to click on link, click on full screen, and scroll to p. 130.  This is a great publication so take the opportunity to read as much of the magazine as you have time given your shelter-in-place status.

In the meantime, I’ve copied the poem below for you to read. 

A Matter of Perspective

Stone & packed earth meander

across the Eurasian Steppe while

barbarian warriors skirt the structure.

Daunting barrier now turned festival site.

The Great Wall of China

Twenty-eight years and one day,

a political declaration of power made visible

brick by brick demolished,

now transformed into public art.

Berlin Wall, Germany

terrorism, racial segregation, apartheid

cultural blight, canvas for graffiti

twenty-six feet tall concrete slabs.

West Bank Wall, Israel

iron-post teeth rust in the sun,

slice backyards, divide farmlands, sever parks

boundary defined by small crosses, names on paper,

Border Fence as Wall, Southwestern U.S.A

Leaving my office,

driving home to my gated community,

protected with its finely decorated entrance

solid wall and number pad.  

I am safe.

7 comments

  1. I wrote a poem once called Walls & Bridges. It may be in one of those chapbooks I gave you.
    Unfortunately, we humans are much better at building walls than bridges, but oh the cost.

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