The Walls Between Us _______________________________________________________________

By Dick Eiden

Dick is a poet, attorney, and political activist living in Vista, California. He says the poem below is "after Lou Reed [musician, singer, and songwriter], Dirty Boulevard." Dick was inspired by a recent trip to Ensenada and the return drive on the inland route to Tecate through hills very green at the time.

The Walls Between Us

Pedro found a magic book in a garbage can, 
cast a spell to make him disappear and 
fly away from the dirty boulevard, the 
muddy, pothole boulevard of old cars, 
chickens and Chiclets, dogs guarding something 
unseen, chasing people off the sidewalk 
 
into the malevolent boulevard of 
painted women, stumbling drunks, 
shoppers from today's cruise ship - 
pickpockets scrounging for scraps 
on the fertile boulevard of sour dreams.
 
Flying above the hills of Baja, Pedro sees 
the dirty thin wall and boulevard of no-mans-land 
that winds like a ribbon on an Easter bonnet 
through fresh green hills below heaven, 
above these cities of dirt and dust.
                                                                                                                                                                                         3/5/19