David Kahn
A Poem

Lines

Look over there at the property line
That side is yours and this side is mine
I’ll keep what’s mine and you keep what’s yours
Do your own work, do your own chores

Division in order to keep yourself free
Invasion if you don’t like what you see
I’ll set my own rules, you do the same
It’s all so much fun, like playing a game

Believe in my law, this side of the fence
Except a few rebels making me tense
Of my vision they are beginning to taint
I guess a new line we’ll now have to paint

But now I have less and I liked it with more
To get it all back, we must go to war
Making new boundaries, getting rid of the old
And always doing just as we’re told

What a mess we have made of it all
Put it all up then watch it all fall
It all started with that one little stripe
Now we just sit here and do nothing but gripe

I don’t think this is working, I’m beginning to see
Gaining the I at expense of the we
Maybe we aren’t practicing by God’s design
Perhaps we should just get rid of the line