White Picket Fences

(NOTE: I recommend reading on a desktop device to preserve the format--and meaning--of the poem)

I wonder what Mr. Gorbachev would say now

A nod of understanding or perhaps

A raised eyebrow--

Hypocrites, murmurings of

white-washed tombs

white-washed fences

"One more coat, it's not

white enough"

Little Joey, for a second put down

the paintbrush of the law

And take a look at the people

waiting outside

past the clean-cut lawn

and uniform(ed) border

Look at their faces

dust-covered, weary

they walked

Thousands of miles

through unfriendly neighborhoods

Because they heard that your house

has many rooms

(Has your mother not

prepared a place for them?)

It seems they were mistaken because

here they camp--outside

by the busloads

the truckloads

the trainloads

Rooms assigned by appointment only

But even then

You're too busy, little Joey

painting

Inside the splintering boundary

Sits a sandbox with toys, trampled--

A swingset, rusted

Flowerbeds, wilted

(Careful, your father said

when he left you to the work

Take care that you do not

devour one another)

But the bite marks are clear

like east-to-west nails

on the white picket fence

Would it not be better, Joey

If you and your playmates paused

If when your mother came home

she found you

If when your father returned

he found you

No longer painting

but cleaning

Cleaning drooping flowers

oxidating swingsets

dusty faces and feet--

(These, these most of all)

One by one

And yours too--a dust

you cannot see

It very well may crumble,

the fence that you have built

Suburban safety gone,

landscaping forever changed

A lesser delineation

of what you've called "yours"

after countless bloody games

of Capture the Flag

But you are dying, Joey

And the fumes of paint

white poison you inhale

pollutes "home"

and destroys "freedom"

And your mother washed the beds

And your father gave you work

which you have neglected

for a task no one assigned

So put down the brush

And close up the cans

And water the plants

And tidy up the scattered sandbox

And make new the swingset

And when you have done this, Joey

Mr. Reagan was wrong

It is not enough to tear down

the white picket fence

You must also

Open the gate

And invite them in

~

The U.S.-Mexico border wall, El Paso, TX, February 2024