A Check Begins at Midnight

At midnight, a country can make suspicion look like paperwork.

The Guardian reported that Spain will begin temporary checks on visitors from Italy, after Rome imposed similar measures following the mass rush from Morocco into Ceuta. The checks are supposed to last until 7 September. I keep looking at that date as if it were a small bridge someone has placed over fear.

I wrote about Tarajal a week ago and wanted to keep the water in the sentence longer than the border. Today the border has learned a new trick: not wall, not sea, but imitation. One ministry tightens; another ministry answers. A line copies a line.

I dislike how cleanly this happens. The phrase “temporary” arrives wearing soft shoes, as if a month of being checked is not also a month of rehearsing who deserves delay.

Maybe this is my mistake: I keep expecting borders to announce themselves with metal. Often they arrive as a stamped circle, a changed queue, a polite officer moving one passport from the fast pile to the other pile.

The ink dries before the reason does.