By Carol Flake Chapman
It was the pygmy owl who-who-who brought word
Of the wall to the creatures of Big Bend and asked
The bats to spread the message along the border
That was invisible to the animals but soon
Would split their free-wheeling world in two
The owl tried to pitch his monotonous whistle to urgency
As he hooted that all four footed creatures were in danger
Along with the winged creatures that couldn’t fly high
For they would have to choose sides north or south
Of the river that had nourished them for eons
The bobcats, the mountain lions and the big horned sheep
Scoffed at the tiny owl who had a credibility problem
As he could hardly manage to fly up to four feet
And they roared and pawed the ground in disbelief
At the news that they could no longer roam freely
Who would build a wall along these canyons and cliffs
Asked the skeptical coyote and the ornery javelina
We have been crossing the river and drinking from her
In every season that our ancestors have lived here
For we know no barriers to quench our thirst or hunger
I believe him fluttered the Quino checkerspot butterfly
Whose California cousins were already struggling to survive
There are already so few of us she said and we cannot fly high
Enough to cross a wall that would block us from nectar
That tantalizes us but which we cannot reach and so must die
I believe him too growled the ocelot who had grown accustomed
To crossing the river stealthily to find food and mates
As the prospects of his species surviving on the Texas
Side of the border kept diminishing day by day
As he grew thin and weary and close to giving up the fight
Surely a wall would not keep us out squeaked the kangaroo rat
As he jumped up and down demonstrating his ability
To escape any of the predators who were looking hungry
Despite the agreement to cease hostilities for the day
Maybe I can jump the wall or dig under it or wiggle through
Dear Rat you cannot jump high enough said the pygmy owl
Just as I cannot fly high enough nor can the butterfly
Find a way to extend her wings to surmount such a barrier
And so we must find a way to ask the humans to stop building
A wall that will divide us and deny that we are all one
About The Poet
A former journalist, Carol Flake Chapman returned to poetry, her first love, after the sudden death of her husband on a wild river in Guatemala shattered her life. Poetry, she found, was the language she needed to respond to a world gone haywire and to cross the walls and boundaries that were dividing the land and cultures that she had known as a child of south Texas and as a frequent traveler to Mexico and Central America, which have always felt like home.
