This poem is an emotional plea against the artificiality of political borders. The landscape itself rebels against the division: the same crops grow on both sides and “mother earth / didn’t come with the etched lines”. The children on both sides of the river share the same sun and the same grandmothers.
In school, both girls are taught that the other side is “cruel,” repeating the same lie. But at dusk, the river itself “forgets borders”. The girls meet, trade bracelets, and share quiet laughter that “ripples through the water”. The river is the true, undivided reflection of their unity.
- Same crops grow on both sides,
- because
- mother earth
- didn’t come with the etched lines.
- Both wake to the same sun,
- & the same rooster’s cry;