Elizabeth I. Riseden

Confucian Walls

China’s wild section
of Great Wall sweeps
across what was once
Mongolia.

In the nearby entertainment
area, tourists bustle among
stalls; many traders
show Mongolian roots.

A lone duck
white as a ghost
waddles
nearby, hunting
bugs.

Atop San Diego’s Great
Wall sweeps the Mexican
vista, gateway
to the Latino south.

Nearby
many traders are Latinos,
uneasy in their welcome,
legal or not,

A lone duck
waddles in rain
by the wall.
A grasshopper dangles
from its beak.

Elisabeth I. Riseden writes from Carson City, Nevada. Her poetry has appeared in The Tonopah Review and does so frequently in Danse Macabre.