Gregory Gumbs – Ⅴ

The Borders as the New Horizons 

 

Instead of viewing borders

As absolutes between here and there

The well-known and immediately recognizable on the one side

Foreign lands and strange cultures on the other side

Instead of viewing borders as

Our ultimate sacred space in this border-erasing and collapsing

globalizing era

Public property which has become so intensely privatized more and

more across the globe but especially in the North over the last twenty years

Borders as the modern forms of medieval Fortresses to be protected

at any and all costs against invading hordes of aliens on the move

And since 9/11 the growing notion that these poor aliens are now

potential enemies in disguise coming in to wreak havoc in the

North

Fueling more and more often barely-hidden racist and xenophobic

calls to build Berlin walls around the wealthy countries

So, instead of viewing borders

As absolutes

Inviolable and imaginary markings on a map

At which something wonderful and uniquely virtuous abruptly ends

And something more threatening, alien and maybe even corrupting

begins

Maybe

Just maybe

This exile would respectfully suggest

We all should resolve to imagine and boldly strive to understand

In these very fluid and for many unsettling times

Borders

 

Grenze

Frontera

Frontieres

more like

Horismos or

The horizon or

New Frontiers

Namely as adaptable and moving meeting places

Instead of minefields

From where something essential

commences its unending

Magical and yes

Often unexpectedly fascinating and

surprising unfolding

In the end, renewing and

Enriching all of us in this ongoing process

as old as humanity itself.