by Suzette Bishop
Go ahead and come on down to Alamo, Texas
To admire me, the wall at the border,
Go ahead and come on down to brag
About building me to keep the country safe,
Go ahead and come on down to praise me
And yourself,
How strong we are,
How big and beautiful we are,
How much we cost taxpayers,
How no one can scale us,
How we keep out criminals,
How we cage children but keep them warm
With foil blankets.
Let me help you have a photo op
Before you leave office,
A mic, a platform,
Since you were walled out
After breaking down the doors
And smashing the windows of the Capitol.
As you know, I may be incomplete,
But I’m great,
So great that at night under the stars
This section of me coils
Into a circle,
Tighter and tighter
Around you and your golf cart,
The ocelots staring at you
As they run from one border to the next,
Walling you in,
Keeping the country safe again.
Suzette Bishop teaches at Texas A&M International University in Laredo, Texas. Her books include Horse-Minded, She Took Off Her Wings and Shoes, Hive-Mind, Cold Knife Surgery, and most recently, a chapbook, Jaguar’s Book of the Dead. Her poems have appeared in many literary magazines and anthologies. Poems about living on the border, animals, and endangered species are highlighted in her most recent poems and books while her favorite way to enjoy the borderlands is by horseback.