Mustard
Borders are fluid some of the time,
and some of the time they are rubber
and bands and plastic soft molds—
but trenches are hard and fast
and earthworks are things of permanence—
and when the gas was thrown across
the lines, the wind came up and weather,
and we who defended wore our masks
watched the heavy air because it had weight,
and waited to secure what we could.
During the soccer game while we retrieved
our dead, the Germans and English fought
the battle with a ball and make shift nets,
found they had more in common
than mustard gas, than boundaries.
Some of the time those who create peace
out of poison. earthworks, deep trenches,
who retrieve both their dead and others,
play a ball against a foot, understand the color
of air, discover borders have little insignificance.