he thought the border
was a line, between two spaces,  
two tongues
or
a no man’s land  
where imagined demons
slithered through the night  
or,
when dreaming,
a door, to another world,    
yet still a flatland

but he dreamed little  

and
when I told him
the border  
was the slit eye of a fish    
immersed in waves without words  
a place where sound
could be tasted  
and a scent seen  
as clearly as scarlet sky  
and light inhaled  
as a suckled symphony  
when I told him this
he asked what two worlds
this border defined  
as if my words
had been heard by his ears
rather than tasted
as the sweetest lies