On The Borderline

On The Borderline was published in the spring 2026 print issue of Otherwise Engaged Literature and Arts Journal and reprinted by The Ones Behind the Bookshelves.

Ancient cartographers knew the danger
of living on the edge: they warned
of dragons beyond. Submerged, invisible,
waiting for the unwary step, the bold
enterprise, waiting

to strike.

There is no borderline so mysterious
as that between earth and sky, between
lover and beloved, between reality
and fantasy. We invent paths through
liminality, thinking we can escape its
pull, closing our eyes, wanting only

the clarity of the obvious. The edge is too
dangerous, too unknown.

In my seaside town we live on that same edge
of danger, coming here to heal, or to die,
or to find something we’ve always imagined
exists. We’ve come here for centuries, looking
for poetry, love, redemption, peace—
or perhaps only the fish:

something we think this place can give. But
like the man said, if you don’t bring it here,
you won’t find it here.

***

Here as in every liminal space dragons guard
the portals: fiery and luminous, they surface
out of dark shadowed dreams, dancing through
our restless nights like mourners at some
demented jazz funeral. They can neither
be ignored nor fully remembered:

There are only questions on the borderline.