The Boundary Commission

‘You remember that village where the border ran
Down the middle of the street,
With the butcher and baker in different states?’
Today he remarked how a shower of rain

Had stopped so cleanly across Golightly’s lane
It might have been a wall of glass
That had toppled over. He stood there, for ages,
To wonder which side, if any, he should be on.

© Paul Muldoon, permissons Faber & Faber Ltd.

Paul Muldoon remarks on the division of small towns by the border.