Walls
‘We’ll build a wall’
they say.
‘They’ being those who know.
The generals
who first declared
we’d have to live together
side by side,
and trust the others
to behave like us.
Or like we’d like to be, that is.
And now ‘They’ say
it’s better to build walls
that separate
and keep us out of range
of rage unbridled
and the lust for blood
set free.
But no one listens now
because we’ve learned
that walls cannot contain
the fury
any more than words can
realize
the dream.
(November 2001)
(First published in Moment, April 2003)
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