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.

— Michael Brownstein