Poems From Providence - The Poet's Press

VISA GRANTED, WITH GRAVEL
Enough
polite letters to the Ministry
Enough
waiting for the refusal of visas
Enough
bread-dry mornings for the good of the state
Nothing
will stand between him and freedom
Nothing
but the wall that entombs Berlin from the sun
Nothing
but a little barbed wire, a
handful of guards with tiny bullets,
the frown on the face of the portrait of Lenin
Nothing
but a guardhouse pin-pocked
with bullet holes, dusty macadam
rust-stained with fugitive blood
Nothing
but gravity prevents him from leaping over
but inertia prevents him from charging through
but brick and stone —
If the wall is an immovable object,
he must become an irresistible force.
One truck
cargo his girlfriend
his eight-month-old child
One truck
piled high with proletarian gravel
seven tons weighted to the limit
all but the needed gas siphoned away
to prevent explosion
turned into a high-speed ram to test
Newton’s laws against the state’s