FULL SERVICE POET

No.

No, our borders are not secure
No, borders cannot be secured
without violence without state without state-sponsored violence
without state as sanctioned violence

No, borders cannot be secure
No, borders are an idea
borders are negotiated
at the end of a war

No border has no openings
no skin without pores, no wall without doors
No borders can be visible but as a line on a map
unless force unless forcible separation unless war
No, our borders are not secure
as war is the opposite of security

Without violence without state without state-sponsored violence,
what we fear is the other violence, the random
the child with a backpack full of guns
the gunman without a motive
the motive without a border
who moves throughout our lands

What is the motive of the border
What is the meaning of a wall
How cozy is it to be sealed off inside
my home my castle my country
How free is it to be untouched by the other

How delusional is it to be separate,
Alexa?

If security is peace why is security wearing a uniform and a gun
What parallel on the map matters
What home does the line transect
What village what habitat who decided
at the end of which war
from a room far away

What languages are spoken along that line
(fifty)
Who still speaks them and why do they divide
themselves from us that way
Why do languages die every year
(four)
Why do species die every day
Why do people die every day to cross the border

Why do children die to cross the border
Why do children cross the line
Why does the line transect the parent and child
transect the community and its water
the butterfly and its sweet nectar

Why is the line one hundred-miles wide
Why is it called the border when it is a zone
Why can anyone be stopped in the borderlands
of the free side of the line

by the state
by state sanctioned violence
by the state as sanctioned violence

How can the free side of the line
call itself free