Orland Park Prayer Center

The Prayer Center of Orland Park

where do you draw the fine line
between your country and mine
you call it a Border,
say it removes chaos, disorder
uproots disarray
but really it’s twisted like a double helix, my DNA
says my structure’s the same
as another person’s across the line
who got a heart & soul just like mine.
but you’re saying I need a green card
or you’ll put me out like I got a red card
sitting out the game from outside the lines
I can only stare and watch because I’m not allowed inside
imaginary lines, they call these Borders
would do anything to drive through it like I’m the Transporter
but you gonna arrest me like it’s Law & Order
destroy my life like the ring in Mordor.
Palestine to Israel, Mexico to the States
Work, Medical, Asylum, but you say it’s high stakes
that if a Syrian refugee comes to seek a new life
he’ll have a bomb strapped to his chest ’cause you claim it’s rife
for a child with post-traumatic stress disorder
to blow up a city, that’s why you believe in Borders.
Borders, just Borders, but not boundaries
when you refuse a human being and deny him or her entry
when this land was founded on killing, breaking and entering
when you think they don’t deserve to be here, that’s called supremacy
and its favorite color is white like crack-cocaine
Reagan brought it to low income neighborhoods, clear as cellophane
he created Borders within Borders, Borders racist and classist.
the system continues, country’s run by fascists
the Borders were man-made, but can make a man made
cop will police him with his gun if he crosses as the wrong race.
torture in and out of Borders, Guantanamo Bay
and the prison-industrial complex that caters to white males guilty of murder and rape
Borders like the white picket fence American Dream
like Segregation in America in the 1950s
come at my black brothers and sisters when they protest peacefully
but it’s quiet when it’s a neo-nazi rally
build a wall to Border immigrants like the Apartheid Wall in Falasteen
someone tell Israel they’re antisemitism is pure hypocrisy
build Borders, but invade and raid Afghanistan and the Middle East
build Borders and feed the gang wars in Chicago’s inner cities
build Borders like it’s a Build-a-Bear Workshop
build Borders and Bleach minds & Brainwash
that’s a euphemism for euthanizing braincells, “re-education”
fill young minds with Borders, make them brainless, headless, decapitation
building Borders doesn’t destroy Disorder
but building Bigotry destroys Dignity
Borders are Borders are partitions are divisions
A human is a person who should cross free without permission.
By Mariam Ramahi

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