IF WALLS COULD TALK
by Anna B. Green

You might have seen him in his brick suit
On Fox news 
Photographed standing alongside Trump. 

He is
Donald Trump's long-promised border wall
The president's tough stance on immigration.

His given name is Blake Marnell. 
Like walls - there are two sides to Blake.
There's a back story - 
A story that might be told over a neighbor's fence in the coal region. 

Blake’s family originally hailed from Mount Carmel, Pennsylvania.
Now a coastal elite from San Diego, 
Blake styles himself a working-class tough guy.
But like other anti-immigrant coalcrackers
Barletta 
Bognet(ti)
Blake remembers where he’s from,
but has forgotten from whom he came.

His grandfather
was dutifully, fondly, and respectfully
addressed as
Tata.
Maybe Blake (Marinelli) forgets or never learned
that his people
Bodziak
Kopchak
D’Angelo
DiFrancesco
lived in neighborhoods
made up of immigrants
who shared
their meagerness
their living rooms
their time
with Americans and their fellow foreigners.
Or that his great-grandparents were immigrants with second-grade educations.

Or, maybe,
his people yelled ethnic slurs at their neighbors.
Or,
they laughed
at the man sitting on his porch
reading a paper
and shouted
“Can you even read?”
Or, perhaps, 
his people didn’t think twice
about trivial coal region practices
like nepotism on school boards,
law enforcement that cut deals,
contractors who gave kickbacks.  

Anna B. Green is a local poet. She enjoys sewing, gardening, cooking, and playing cards.