Humanist Voices in Verse: “Hadrian Jr.’s Wall”

This week’s poem is by Brian C. Felder, a widely published poet currently writing from his home in rural Delaware.

If you’d like to contribute original poetry to Humanist Voices in Verse, write to write@thehumanist.com with “Poetry” in the subject line. Please send no more than three poems for consideration per week.

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Hadrian Jr.’s Wall

Call it (and him) what you will,
but it (and he) are equally bad ideas;
as in, who plays defense when there is no offense?
Unless, of course, you mean to take offense
as a pretense to be intense about nonsense.
Then, it becomes an expense for us all
and changes naught about the onslaught
of their brown future over your white past.
Build it if you must, man, but know now
that it will not hold back history;
it (and you) but a Jersey barrier
on the highway to America’s tomorrow.
Honk if you love Jesús!