There Is Talk Of Boarding Up The Nation Poem by Barney Rooney

there is talk of boarding up the nation
now the river is on the rise
of sealing every border to hold back the human tide
for there is a fear abroad that this will not subside
but will churn through the settled order of the ways
a people built a nation fit to spend their days

they have boarded up the mind
as if there is too much to grasp
understanding no defence
when desperate strangers claim a right of residence
surely none before could presume such right
to enter another's home without invite
take a share of all that is within
without contest, for this was never theirs to win
by conquest, war or lawful course
but still they come by weight of will
and some strange moral force

we once ruled their world
we were the ruthless or romantic explorers
(well, not so much 'us' as the 'we' who went before us)
and in the pillage we took delight
thinking time would write off debts of our imperial might
we drew the boundaries, paying little heed
to the call of tribe, nation, creed
of those who lost the right of consultation as to borders
conceding to the head cock in the pecking order
aye, for we could crow and strut
more than our chests swelled in pride
that in the very act of winning
good was on our side
in the very places where the rivers now rise
we used strokes of ink to do Solomon's work
took our booty off the tottering empire of the Turk
the victor's spoil
that lay beneath their dusty soil
oil