Keep Moving (World Refugee Day) #TogetherWithRefugees

 

It wasn’t your fault

that when you were three

bullets fell like rain 

and blood ran down the road

flooding streets with pain 

of a war nobody wanted

Keep moving 

 

You didn’t choose your home

to be pounded down around you 

bursting like a bubble 

every semblance of safety 

leaving under rubble

every memory you had

Keep moving

 

You didn’t understand

when your parents grabbed you under one arm 

and all their world under the other 

farewelling 

in the rear-view mirror  

the only life they’d ever known 

Keep moving

 

And you can’t comprehend

your mother’s grief

as now she grasps you tight 

blistering her feet

facing down the miles 

between the trauma and the hope

Keep moving

 

You don’t understand

the choice-less choice 

your parents made

as they trusted lawless men

putting everything at stake

to cross a sea of pain

Keep moving 

 

Now you don’t know why

your father’s face is always strained

and why he barely speaks

why his shoulders slump in pain

and why your mother weeps

oceans from her eyes

Keep moving

 

And you don’t understand 

why this was meant to look like hope

why your parents risked so much 

to come to a new home

this home that doesn’t want them.

Keep moving 

The last of my three poems for World Refugee Day

Dedicated to all who wander the earth in search of hope, humanity and a home.

#TogetherWithRefugees #WorldRefugeeDay #withrefugees #LoveTheStrangerAmongYou