Love Thy Neighbour

The Fence

Now you've built your
terrible fence too high,
topped it with fearsome wire
so that those behind it
would rather wait for death
than climb.

Now you've marked out
who can enter, what qualities
make a proper human being
and whose clothes might as well be
shrouds in waiting.

You nearly love your real neighbours
but today you've taken
all reasonable measures
against the faceless, the voiceless,
the barely human, the greedy throng,
those not entirely like ourselves.

You have made so sure
they have nowhere left to go,
but what power your enemies
have gained; what loss your friends;
how the markets tumble;
dealers voices roar above
trade your dreams in stolen goods
so, one day soon, you too
might be a refugee.