border
A border is a fringe
that ensures the rug
won't fray.
A border is a mix
of shrubs and flowers
around a house
or at the surveyed edge
of the property,
squirrels and sparrows
here and there.
A border is a boundary,
a frontier made precise,
an imaginary line
two countries agree to
as the geographical limit
of both nation's authority,
borders thought essential
to maintaining order,
the subjects
of one country
perhaps not speaking
the language of the citizens
of the other, its schools
perhaps teaching
that the heroes of the other
must be remembered
for hateful crimes,
some borders
impossible to patrol,
no more than lines
drawn on a map,
surveyed, uninhabited stretches
where some wander
here and there,
many borders guarded,
knotted shut
with checkpoints and fences,
to exclude refugees
from fraying nations.
By William Aarnes
Biography:
William Aarnes has published four collections of poetry, the latest being The Hum in Human (Main Street Rag, 2022).
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