Issue 2: David Chorlton

Postcards from Along the Fence

I

This is a nice enough spot

to spend a few days

if you like sparse vegetation

and perspective.

When nobody else is around

the fence appears so natural

you’d think it had been here first

and the desert was planted around it.

II

Some people say the fence is ugly,

that it spoils the view

toward the mountains in the south,

but when you think of it as art

it becomes a river of steel

flowing between banks of light

and there’s no way short of magic

to get across.

III

Yesterday we stopped off

to see the graveyard

for the nameless ones

who died while crossing over.

There are plenty of vacancies.

You just climb into the hole

and someone comes along

to bury you. You don’t even

need papers.

--David Chorlton

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