Thoughts on Borders by Kara Gilson

Thoughts on Borders

Kara Gilson

Today’s visiting author - Matthew Cheney -

Got the wheels of my brain turning

Quite a bit.

Ideas and subjects came up that I wasn’t

Quite anticipating:

Spinning tales of truth with imaginative fiction,

Forcing our imaginations to work,

What a man with sewn on pig parts would look like,

just to name a few.

But, one thing is still spinning around,

still lingering in my thoughts.

Borders.

What do borders do?

Are they supposed to keep us safe?

Keep us from wandering? Trap us?

Are they supposed to compartmentalize us?

Divide us? Control us? Rule us?

Are they there to help us, or to harm us?

Keep us in line?

Are borders, like rules, made to be broken?

What borders are we afraid to cross?

What borders are worth keeping?

What borders are we ready to obliterate?

I can’t help but connect the struggle of borders with the crisis at our country’s border;

What exactly are we trying to teach our children?

I think it’s time to turn the page over and

Attempt to write the other way.