<html aria-label="message body"><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="overflow-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;"><div dir="auto" style="overflow-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space; font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Distant Sands</span><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Lines in the sand are crossed </span><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">all the time, often unknowingly </span><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">by the feet of mothers </span><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">dreaming a hungry child to safety.</span><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">The crossing is anything</span><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">but safe when cages and cheap</span><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">uniforms tend the lines.</span><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">On this unholy night, no wise men</span><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">journey the desert </span><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">seeing the child to safety.</span><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Do you know where your lines</span><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">are written; on what faraway </span><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">shore or desert do they fall?</span><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">And by whose hand are the warnings</span><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">etched in the grains of yesterday’s</span><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">mountains that once stood tall</span><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">but now blow in the wind?</span><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Will you admit that the weather</span><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">means more than the crossing </span><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">of borders so quickly chosen</span><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">by minds wanting for distance?</span><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Such fences fall when the silence </span><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">is broken and truth is spoken </span><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">for a world where no one </span><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">crosses lines that never existed,</span><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">letting sand and hearts </span><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">once again, do as they will.</span><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">- C Sonnen </span></div></body></html>