Border Lines

                                   A weight carried by two
                                   Weighs only half as much.


The world on a map looks like the drawing of a cow
In a butcher's shop, all those lines showing
Where to cut.

That drawing of the cow is also a jigsaw puzzle,
Showing just as much how very well
All the strange parts fit together.

Which way we look at the drawing
Makes all the difference.
We seem to live in a world of maps:

But in truth we live in a world made
Not of paper and ink but of people.
Those lines are our lives.  Together,

Let us turn the map until we see clearly:
The border is what joins us,
Not what separates us.


                                                                    ©2003 by Alberto Ríos