A poem by Stan Raines

In Brownsville

In Brownsville did the Chertoff a mighty wall decree
Its ramparts tall and gleaming with turrets jeweled green and blue
Built of sturdy stone quarried from la Cerro de la Silla
And set in place by los manos de los albiñiles;
Many hands, many days and nights stretched to weeks and months,
They labored and the wall did rise and extend along levees of the river’s north;
And secrets did they build in those stones—chambers and tunnels all connected
Through the wall so passing was easier for those who knew.
And celebrations both public and occult did break out as this section or that
Was completed in the town, and the people marvelled at the work
that had risen in their midsts; and the Chertoff himself
Came pronounced his wall a wonder and before long
All the world had heard of this feat in stone.

then I awoke, this fragment in hand,
and wondered, I did, that such marvels
could only inhabit the precincts
of imagination’s land. Here, in this land,
free and brave and proud, no such tale
will arise, will it, my children?

With many apologies to literate people everywhere and S. Coleridge’s shade in particular.