Divided City

In that divided city, in the heart,
you wander half the lengths of any street
When suddenly you meet
Festoons of razor wire that slice apart
The mirrored parks and avenues, discrete
Histories that start
To ramify from one event. The chart
Is half detailed, half blank and incomplete.

And on the other side, does someone stand
Deciphering the signs forbidding entry
In doubled alphabets? A weary sentry —
One star — winks overhead. The nettles grow
Between, in no-man’s land,
And only cats, like dreams, pass to and fro.

Alicia E. Stallings

 
Portrait on map by Ed Fairburn