A Tale of 4 Walls

If walls could talk, they'd tell many a tale

Of human endeavors that ultimately fail.

We were built to protect from invading hordes,

Guarded and patched and some fully restored,

For millennia we were meant to remain

But few did our purpose completely attain.

***

Immense piles of stone created me, Hadrian's Wall,

Built by Legions of Romans before the Empire's fall.

Heavily fortified by castles and shallow ditch moats,

I stretched over north Britain from east to west coast.

Six years of hard labor by thousands of men,

Surveyors, stone masons and finally then,

I stood completed as a barrier wall,

To ward off the raiders that would plunder them all.

Year 122 my construction began,

The unconquered tribes of the north to ban.

As unrest and rebellion threatened the land,

My structure by soldiers was heavily manned.

Now millennia later, a mere fraction's intact

And tourists gaze on me in wonder enwrapt.

They walk on my stones that once stood in defense,

Guarding civilized Romans from Barbarians' offence.

In the Lowlands, it's true that the people laid claim,

To the stones of my wall and without any shame,

They tore them all down and without a preamble,

Used them quite well their own dwellings assemble.

I saw how the people covetously eyed my stones as they herded their sheep and cattle. Stones already dug sitting in plain sight with no need of back-breaking digging! It was just too much temptation and stone by stone they began to dismantle and cart me away to build shelters for themselves.

***

In similar vein did the Chinese endeavor

Against invaders seeking their lands to sever,

To build me, the Great Wall, their realm to defend,

And for thousands of miles across country extend.

Though solidly built of bricks, stones, and wood

And for thousands of years the elements I withstood,

My structure was marred by the grazing of cattle,

And by those who stole parts of me for their own private chattel.

Destruction came not from foreign invaders,

But those residing inside, the stealthy night raiders

Who pilfered my bricks and the stones all to sell,

Or built themselves houses in which they could dwell.

I saw them stealthily coming at night and heard them say, "Our cows need more grazing and shelter. We'll just loosen some stones to let them inside. We're so far away for the emperor's men that they'll never know. But look, all these bricks that we've loosened, we can take them home and use them to build our own shelters. The rest we can send to market and sell them to merchants. Should anyone ask, we'll say we heard a great crash and saw parts of the wall tumble down the mountain and there was nothing we could do.

"If I, the Great Wall, could have a moment, I'd say,

I was initially built to keep foreigners at bay,

But- in a strange twist of fate, I'm to welcome them now,

As they trample my lengths and walk on my brow. "

***

With all that they know about antiquity's walls,

You'd think men would know better than to build them at all.

But that's not the case as we all shall determine,

By example of mine that divided the German.

My wall in Berlin split the city in two,

Causing upheaval and strife to ensue.

Millions had fled from the east to the west

To escape all the turmoil and political unrest.

In just two short weeks I was fully constructed

And the surge to the west was thusly obstructed.

But the will of the people could not be denied,

Even though in escaping I saw many who died.

Some drove their cars through my vulnerable sections,

Wanting to flee in the mass of defections.

Over and under my wall they'd maneuver,

Taking flights in balloons or crawling through sewer.

I could shamefully tell of the unhallowed ground,

'Death Strip' was its name where bodies were found,

Where guards had permission to shoot on sight

Anyone caught there by day or by night.

I could tell of the summer in 1962, the most horrendous event I was ever to witness, as two young men attempted escape. They made it to the 2nd barricade and one made it over to the western side, but the shots hit the other and he fell to the ground as many witnesses, including journalists and people from the west side, heard his screams while he slowly bled to death in the sand. No one dared to jump in to help him with the guards' weapons still pointing down. He just wanted freedom…is the epitaph on the marker erected in his memory.

Then in November of 1989 I heard rumors abound

That the gates would be opened and I'd soon be torn down.

First hundreds, then thousands surged to my gates,

And chanted while anxiously awaiting their fates.

Two million and more swarmed through my gate (s),

Destructing the barrier, they'd all grown to hate.

Hammers and picks chipped at me, the despised,

And bulldozers soon shoved to complete my demise.

Others I saw, ecstatic at walking through free,

Joined throngs of the others in an unfettered spree.

With families united and friends met again,

They celebrated widely with joy and champagne.

***

Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door! The Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation, Inc.

A statue in New York's great harbor stands,

That welcomes the masses from faraway lands.

For hundreds of years, the downtrodden poor

It's invited to enter through a golden door.

I'm a wall in the south-west with a different intent,

As immigrants' entrance I was built to prevent.

I keep out the migrants who are just as poor

As the ones who are invited through the 'golden door'.

I'm far from a showpiece for tourists to view,

I'm crooked and jagged and slightly askew.

Constructed in rather an ad hoc style,

There're parts of me missing for many a mile.

Of barbed wire and posts, chain link and old rail

I'm constructed so poorly and far too frail

To ward off the thousands who desperately seek

Escape from corruption and futures grown bleak.

I could tell you the stories of families split,

Of parents detained while their children sit

Captive in cages for many a night

In spite of their already perilous plight.

As a result of Trump's ruling that illegal migrants were criminals and faced arrest, as well as his upholding of Title 42 that denied immigrants passage across the border during Covid precautions, many migrant children are now sent alone to the United States, held until they're released to sponsors, many of whom are a parent or a close family relative already living there.

I could tell stories so fraught with grief,

Of migrants in search of some lasting relief

From intolerable conditions they'd left far behind,

To live in a country where they'd not be maligned.

Drug wars and poverty and poor living conditions,

Have taken their toll and led to their missions

To leave homes behind in a quest for survival

With hearts full of hope at my gates on arrival.

It's a blight on humanity that the world's in this state,

Where the poor and the hungry must remain at the gate.

And I am the barrier built to restrain,

Their reaching the freedom they'd all hope to gain.

But the blame's not all mine: it's the countries' they've fled,

That denied basic rights and were not justly led.

There's no doubt it's the fault of their homeland nations,

That's the cause of so many to embark on migrations.

They're not the barbarians who'd kill and would loot,

But humanity's impoverished who've had to uproot.

Bereft so completely of all basic rights,

They wander the desert like the old Israelites.

Perhaps the young people from both of my sides

Will breach the great chasm that now divides

One from the other and truly endeavor

To create a more equitable world together.

If walls you must build, then make them judicious,

For fate will scorn you if your intents are malicious.