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