The Border - Bob Engel

[Larry Robinson]

The Border

the soil is shifting in the dirt cemeteries of Ramallah
the stones are lifting in the rock cemeteries of Tel Aviv
from every corner of the land
coffins and winding sheets take flight 
the bodies of the violently dead
arise
drawing fire from sentries
who cease, stunned
when they see their targets
no more dead for being twice or three times murdered

settlers and soldiers and students
mothers, children, patriarchs
common citizens of the country of the dead
draw into formations, head unerringly to the green lines
the checkpoints, the walls, the razor wire fences
that separate the residents of the still living halves of the promised land

the corpses
orient themselves by magnetism
burned toe to crushed skull
an unbroken necklace of cadavers
across city boulevards, through village squares
beside creek beds and along olive orchards
alternating corpses of Arab and Jew 
sometimes on the very dotted line
penciled in by diplomats
sometimes surrounding a settlement
though more often the settlements are 
lifted by a flight of corpses and set down
somewhere more    appropriate

the slim but continuous barricade of bodies
is discovered by the twin populations
who regard one another across it
with no reduction of enmity
but in each assembly 

there is at least one
who can translate the message written by the unblinking dead
    we have purchased the right to negotiate that which you could not
    we are the border you shall not pass

	- Bob Engel
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.sonic.net/pipermail/poetrylovers/attachments/20210521/ad0410a9/attachment.htm>