I have not tried to see
Through the eyes of a refugee

I am aware of them
Here and there
And in between
But I have not seen
Through their eyes
I have not measured
I have not weighed
The worlds they leave
Nor the worlds they imagine
Across the sea

I know one of them
Through a friend
When her journey ended
She said she started off
In a wave
Of many hopeful souls

She has now arrived
In her new world
Has a husband
And a child
And a house
And a new tongue to talk in

Though introduced
We never met
Her wounded way
From there to here
Was flooded in tears
An inundation

An escape
An emigration
Of desperation
Manipulation
By a gauntlet of men
A bartering of copulation
Then,
Immigration

“The rest died
Only I survived”
She said

Sean Hunt  Jan 2 2017

If the truth be told
Only half his heart was gold
The other half was steel
I wish the man they buried
Was at least a little real

It wasn’t his fault
So I’m not really sad
Because both his mum and dad
Were just a little mad

He was a little wounded
When he was a child
Too much time in the trenches
While they all went wild

I never saw them kiss
No one talks about this
Denial of the gloom
And the elephant in the room

Someone I never knew
Went into the ****** hearse
And the epitaph they wrote
Was for another person

Sean Hunt Jan 1st 2017

Stop
Be still
Mental movement
In the mind
Must cease
Now and then
And then again
Now and then
Until thought
Can be stopped
At will
We must learn
To be still

Sean Hunt  Jan 1st 2017

Winter
A waiting game
Every day seems the same
Winter
A waiting time
Waiting for weather to be fine

Earth holds her breath
During many short days
More long nights
And a rationing of light

Half the world held hostage
In suspense
Balanced on a knife-edge
Ledge of death

Until one day
When karma comes
Like a microwave
Radiating
Inside out
From the middle of the riddle
From the center of space
From the middle of the air
To everywhere

A sigh of relief
On half the globe
A sense of levitation
And deep appreciation
For the change
While the other half
Tenses in apprehension
Of their change
Sean Hunt  Dec 31st 2016

The ‘Big Swallow’

My friend needs to put an end
To her dreadful thirst
It never gets better
Only gets worse
Some of us are missing
A major
Metaphorical
Mechanism
A floating valve
That rises to the top
And then insists
On a Stop!
Closing  off
Further flow
Down below.

My friend please put an end
To your dreadful thirst

I am under no illusion
You will forget me soon
My memory will fade into
The space inside your mind
But while you are alive
I will return
I will arrive
Now and then
Like a shooting star
From a far
Passing through
From me to you
But what about
When you too
Disappear
Who then will see
This sudden streak
Through the night sky?

Sean Hunt  Dec 25 2016