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- My brother sleeps just there,
- Beyond the wall.
-
- Helped on to that eternal rest by a frightened
- border guard in brown.
- He has reward enough I guess for a weary
- life hard-spent.
- I suppose he was a gentle man and loving son,
- a party man almost until the end.
- But I saw his democratic face before he died
- just there, beyond the wall.
- He had the look of freedom in his eyes,
- (They said he looked
- just like himself, a freckled imp caught
- stealing grandma's cookies
- from a colored jar) and yet his crooked smile
- just there,
- below his neatly trimmed mustache
- betrayed his democratic eyes.
- I tried to shed a tear for him just now;
- instead a crooked smile
- came to my trembling lips. I understood
- his eyes, I liked
- his pinstripe suit, too small just here,
- too long just there,
- and I wished that I could sleep a hero's sleep
- beyond the wall.
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