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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
BLOSSOMING WALL, by MARJORIE GRAFFLIN
First Line: They built a wall between us and the west
Last Line: Sharp as forgotten pain, as forgiveness fair.
Subject(s): Baltimore, Maryland; Class Struggle; Walls
First Line: They built a wall between us and the west
Last Line: Sharp as forgotten pain, as forgiveness fair.
Subject(s): Baltimore, Maryland; Class Struggle; Walls
(In Baltimore an exclusive residential section built a high wall between
themselves and an encroaching poorer neighborhood.)
They built a wall between us and the west.
They said we'd overrun them like a weed
Or, feeding on the air on which they feed,
Deem ourselves worthy who must go oppressed.
Their spire-flowers nodded with exquisite scent.
Their great elms sprayed against the cooling skies.
They planted cypress where the dew-stars rise
And the red sun flares down to banishment.
But we put poplars. Glassy green and frail,
They rode the coming south wind with a shout
Or shattered into weeping like thin hail,
So that the people of the west came out
To see what ailed the wall. They wedged the air
Sharp as forgotten pain, as forgiveness fair.
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