Ayla Jay Schoenwald

  WALLS

  Today,            

          Everyone is bulidings walls

          to set in stone and cement the illegitimate ownership  

                                                            of stolen land

  Israel, Palestine      Phalasteen

  U.S., Mexico         Aztlan

  until

  each brick in the wall is another moment lost

  another life uprooted

          tree taken

          tear shed

  each brick in the wall is a step closer to separate

  which pretends seperate is safety and right.  

  But Assata Shakur once wrote     

          that a wall is just a wall                         

                and can be broken down

                She never told us how,  

  Instead the walls grow taller

  watered with human blood

  and fertilized with the rhetoric of fear      

                                                  and      

                                                  lies

  culminating in a harvest of death

                                                  and

                                                  loss.  

  or

  maybe             

           not.  

  Perhaps it is possible to permeate permanence,

                                       tear down terror

                                                break down walls.  

  Perhaps      maybe     possible

  Perhaps it may be possible

  It may be,

  this maybe

  I think

  is what I've heard

  called

  hope.

  (Originally posted February 27, 2008)

  To contact Amy Schoenwald email: amyjays@gmail.com