Offa's Dyke
Requisition soil.
Scoop it from a ditch,
raise it and turn the earth
against your enemies.
A narrow rampart
to mark the frontier of tolerance.
Divide land by language.
Make a border out of nothing.
*
Forget the origin. Forget the cause
and let borders be overrun
by bluebells. Let ramparts
degrade. Let the yew tree
entrench its thousand-year-old ambition
beneath the needless ditch and dyke.
Let a man walk the earth
and know that this is the last earth.
First published in Under the Radar