For this week’s Haikai Challenge we are contemplating ‘independence’ in the context of America’s Independence Day; the detainment of children attempting to cross the southern U.S. border; or another context we choose. My mind went to the plastic and laminated cards in my wallet that confirm my Canadian status, my rights and freedoms acquired at birth. After some rumination these haiku came to mind:

.

barbed wire –

legal barriers

at national borders

.

.

stateless –

privileges dissolved

in a black hole

.

.

jus soli

my nationality

planet Earth

.

.

Statelessnessis a condition that applies to millions of people worldwide. The Wikipedia article on the topic opens with:

Ininternational law, astatelessperson is someone who is “not considered as a national by any state under the operation of its law”. Some stateless persons are alsorefugees. However, not all refugees…