Refugee Policy
Too many books in this great nation of ours. Too much science.
Plenty of taxes, twitters and silk ties. Time to face the facts
when facts are what you make them. Clean up your act, People.
Like The Bible tells us, beget many wives but take vigilant census
of lambs and goats. Garden only for yourselves. If there is extra,
they will come. They want our Sharper Image and they really
want our KFC. If we have leftovers, they will keep on coming.
Across deserts, over oceans, out of mountains, hills and ruins.
Oh ruin! Let me tell you what I know about ruin. The American
way of life will be ruined, very, very ruined. We owe nothing
to the truth. Let me be clear: I’m saying build all the walls
you want. Sell all the ladders you want. Here’s the honest-
to-God truth: Nothing makes a difference unless I say so.
Allen Braden is the author of A Wreath of Down and Drops of Blood and Elegy in the Passive Voice. He has published recently in Riddled with Arrows, Bridge Eight, WA129: Poets of Washington and The World Is Charged: Poetic Engagements with Gerard Manley Hopkins. He teaches at Tacoma Community College and serves as assistant poetry editor of Terrain.org.
Read three other poems by Allen Braden appearing in Terrain.org.
Header photo of Library of Congress by 12019, courtesy Pixabay. Photo of Allen Braden by Kate Green.
