For years, refugees

have to stay in the waiting --


area of hope.

Decision to leave
Permission to enter
Right to remain
Hope for peace

Your despair against

my hope, nose to nose, only --


a door in between.

Here too, policemen

coming to deport me to --


a death of torture.

Flight fantasies, vacation
'Mind your step'
Security procedures, waiting at the gate

I close my eyes
my thoughts take the autowalk
to destinations with a runway

The lock of the jetway fails
one meter before the cabin door
'Mind your step'

.....Flight fantasies, security
.....'Tomorrow I'll get there'
.....Security procedures, waiting at the fence

.....I close my eyes
.....my thoughts take a high flight
.....to a future on the other side

.....I land in a camp again
.....at a higher fence, a closed gate
.....'Tomorrow I'll get there'

In the new country

I follow a friend, stepping --


within his footprints.

"Only the wearer knows
where the shoe pinches"
Unfortunately
the self-centred societies
don't care about them
Consequently
their sufferings are being unnoticed
The increasing rate of refugees
is aggravated by violence.

Walk in familiar slippers
Walk when walking’s spent
Walk on hollow highway
Walk in a birthday dress
Walk under frigid stars
Walk with ancestral song
Walk with right
Walk with wrong
Walk in spite
Walk in pity
Walk in the backstreets
Walk in the news
Walk in borrowed city

Home is leaving
Home is a journey
Home is coloured pencils
For a distant classroom
Home is a wilderness
Home is an army
Home is inquisition
Home is another way
Home is a haven
Home is a promise
Home is a rose bed
Home is tomorrow
Home is hard
Home is good

Simon Piesse