Not quite like The Great Wall of China
Built to protect the Chinese empires
From raids and invasions of nomadic tribes.
Not quite like the Berlin Wall,
Dividing East from the West.
Faintly you hear Ronald Reagan’s voice demand,
Gorbachev, tear down this wall.
You think aloud, what is it?
Build or tear down or tear down or build?
Spanning a border that’s 1,989 miles long
You wonder how Trump will build
A 50-foot-precast concrete and steel high-wall
Along the border of Mexico.
Carelessly, Trump has already thrown his trump card
To his base to make American great again.
He publicly says he will deport 11 million illegals.
It should take no more than two years to complete the job, he boasts,
Costing about 10 billion dollars. He tells Vincente Fox, former president
Of Mexico, Get your money ready because you’re going to pay for the wall.
We’ve heard this kind of rhetoric before, but it was Iraq that was going to pay.
You wonder about the River Bend Resort, a lush golf course
In Brownsville, Texas. The wall stops at the edge,
Picking up on the other side.
You wonder about Ray Hunt’s Sharyland Plantation,
A 6,000-acre development of million-dollar homes.
Hunt donated 35 million to Bush’s presidential library.
You don’t see a wall being built here. You wonder about the terrain
Where it’s impossible to build the wall. Then you stop wondering.
It’s an election year. The Republicans melodramatize the situation.
Put profit over people, protect the corporate system and the status quo,
Press for their brand of neoliberalism. Wage class war worldwide.
You conclude, the more things change the more they stay the same.
In Between Hangovers 