Border Thoughts

Betsy Joseph

February 18, 2024

                    “Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

                      I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

                                                                                          Emma Lazarus, “The New Colossus”

Crossing 

borders once meant

freedom from oppression,

far better opportunities.

Once meant.

Now, though,

border crossings

portend many dangers:

razor wire and deportations.

Beware.

Forget

the fairytale

of welcoming all those

yearning so to be free and safe.

Not now.

Forward

and then backward

we roll, ever trying 

to recall our pledge, gone awry,

once meant.

Betsy Joseph lives in Dallas and has poems that have appeared in several journals and anthologies. She is the author of two poetry books published by Lamar University Literary Press: Only So Many Autumns (2019) and most recently, Relatively Speaking (2022), a collaborative collection with her brother, poet Chip Dameron. In addition, she and her husband, photographer Bruce Jordan, have produced two books, Benches and Lighthouses, which pair her haiku with his black and white photography.