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Boundless, a poem by EJ Calderon '18

I’m afraid to die.
So I build up walls,
Walls from her
From him
From them
From me.
Rough around the edges
But neat as the systematic list of countries in my dictionary.
Categorical, and bound by
The boundaries I was taught,
Yet, we never learned that rivers won’t anticipate dams,
And damned is the man
Who forgets what it’s like to flow
In this kayak we call a body
In the boundless ocean we call humanity.
If love were stones by a lake
I’d, toss them in
Until the waves rippled
Like stadium antics
Into the soul,
The soul you can’t define
Can’t explain or taxonimize
Like democrats and republicans
Color coded laundry
Extremist philosophy.
They wana take this precious gold we call soul,
But nah!
Can’t touch this
Like hammer time
Or a westbrook spin move.
Our lives are like olympic swimmers
 These caterpillar days
Turn into butterfly strokes
Like the strokes that 
Result in hyphenated americans…
 
Through the concrete grows a rose
And through the pain we have risen
Like jesus from the grave
Or the sun through the horizon
Because there’s nothing we can’t break through
Not even walls
Especially not walls.
 

Contact
Kimberly Burnett
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