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Michael Kreitman Nov 2015
When I was a child, I was told the story of my Grandfathers mother she was a refugee from mother Russia.
He told me that we were no longer considered white that is a luxury.
And we have become subhuman in most places.
We were either locked behind iron walls to be kept in or out.

He told me how they sacked and burned our villages.
Then they proceeded to chase us on horseback, with swords pointed too the distant future.

She was led to the nearest boat, headed towards The Land Of Opportunity.

At the island she was locked away for Tuberculose and possibly Lice
When leaving she refused to put an X for her name for obvious reasons.
So she signed ****.

Years later I found out, she had opened a pawn shop down south.
In what now is the forth most segregated area in the states.
She sat outside with a shotgun in a rocking chair and windows barred.
when there King died.

Sadly, the last thing remembered by my Papa's mother including my family is a fist fight.
In Santa Barbra.
I saw the look of panic and pain on her despondent face.
At this point that look was a common occurrence in my day to day life.
Hence, the reason I wasn't allowed at the funeral.
I was locked away at another rehabilitation center.
For crimes I had of course never committed

Since then I have not laid any tulips or morning prayers.
Angie S Nov 2015
A million miles over
Cities toppled over like broken glass,
Raging waters with pointed teeth,
Familiar hands lost to the journey,
And hardships nobody on this
Seemingly godforsaken planet
Deserves to endure,
And at the very end of the very last mile,
What right do you have to say,
"You are not welcome here"?
Have you seen the fire that burns
In the orphaned children?
Have you seen the blood of your loved ones
Spilled across your feet?
Have you faced death in the eyes and
Felt his presence in your shadows?
Or have you instead,
Thought the valiantly wandering refugees as
A threat to your quiet life?
I ******* dare you
To look their people in the eyes and tell them
They could be suspected of being terrorists.
I suspect them of being nothing but humans,
Because assuming the worst from not one, but
An entire population--
What kind of logic is that? And
What kind of heart do you have that cannot see
People in need? People that need a place,
If even temporarily, to call home?
Rather,
What kind of heart is it that you lack,
That cannot find the good in people to
Cherish as if you knew their name? And
What kind of heart is it that you lack,
That cannot open your own eyes to the dystopia that is our world
And try to help at least
One
Wandering soul
I learned today that certain states in the US will be accepting Syrian refugees to settle. And mine... will not. (And then a girl mentioned that many refugees have been suspected of being tied to terrorism.) And honestly? People are important. Their lives and stories are important. They have gone through harder times than I probably ever will in my lifetime... the least we can do is provide them a safe place to stay.
(That's my two cents on this topic.)
Memo Oct 2015
run, escape my fatality
on the horizon i see serenity
barbed wires, razor flies obstruct my way
quick! lay still, hide from the prey

baby cries echo in my sleep
brothers and sisters hazed emotions, unable to even weep

flying ships thunder over my head
mute my ears to escape this dread
famine overwhelms my perception
yet I stumble towards my destination

Foreign faces salute my courage to flee
yet they says they have no space; no space for a refugee
collapse, cry cluelessly
look up to faith to absolve me from this destiny
sudden light pardons me to go
yet flashbacks put me to an endless sleep, oh..
The Tinkerer Oct 2015
Day 534

Waking up to a bright sun
But the day's bleak.

Hundreds around me.
I feel so alone.

We've heard news.
The boy who washed ashore.
It's gathered the masses.

Help is coming, we hear.
Help is coming. We Hope.

Tired, bent, we trudge,
Broken, *not yet.

But before long.

Forced from our homes
We bear on.
For it's all we can do
All we can do
Till help comes along

Day 534.

I want this to end.
**Please. Find me a home.
The Syrian civil war has affected millions of innocent people.
Millions dead. Millions displaced. and Billions in shock.
The cruelty and insanity is being witnessed by the world.
Some of the worst days in Human History are upon us.

This is when the world must stand and help.
If not for the sake of helping a country in need.
At least for the sake of humanity and hope.
The war might not end soon.
But must the suffering take the same course?
Liam C Calhoun Sep 2015
Hidalgo’d greeted me with my son’s first
rainbow and the “Grande’s” nearly drinkable,
but I don’t; I simply listen to its whisper.

So swept the moon and salt slightly right of
hand, whilst chasing tequila, and a haunt
avenged – hatred for the home I’ve fled and
harbored, a fury for those that’d now intend her
harm.

Sure, my son’s safe, and he smiles. But the
seconds make haste, when her feet pitter-patter
and a village’s only swell, for so long, so long
that swollen’s tempered.

Tomorrow, I venture back, and the day after, I’d
pray, pray that come Thursday, my baby and our
baby, inebriated womb, would ride atop my
back, free and never to fear again.

Never to run again, never to cry again, and so
birthed our smiles surrounded the table, echoed
were the tales of how we’d achieved, “here” –

Our promised land, “there,” upright, full,
content, we’d talk about it every night, and it’s
there. Come hell or high water, “it’s,” there, it
really is, and come hell or high water, soon we’d
make it, “here.”
I've never known fear like this. I've never known hope like this. And I never fought like I'm fighting now.
H W Erellson Sep 2015
salt stings wounds
salt stings eyes, entering, leaving...
healing, healing. The sea will take you away.
I tire of hearing abot these migrants
well they tire of the rick-shaw of an untested boat
of their homes becoming rubble & dust clouds,
of seeing blood in the dirt.
As long as there is war,
as long as there is famine
as long as there exists somewhere
called 'refuge'
then there will be refugees.
Oh child, rocked to sleep by the tide...
you should never have to answer for adult violence,
innocent & sleepy, sinless.
You have been written in blood in the old books
you have been decided for.
Your dice have been rolled by strange hands;
born amid angry eyes,
and so shall die,
washed ashore upon sand,
carried quietly away
to your final crib
to your refuge.
for alan kurdi
check out more stuff at miragesofleavesinspring.blogspot.com
Liam C Calhoun Sep 2015
“One’s” ok, but “two’s” illegal come a night whispered,

“Run,”
Or so the grass spoke –

     Run like the wind.
     Run,
          But always look back.
     Run,
          So to liberate all you’ve loved.
          So too, awaits a home, only dreamt.

And she ran,
From village to village –

     Blankets wrought pollen.
     Carrots,
          For another’s eyes.
     Our baby,
          The outlaw prior even born;
          Hot on heal, the “department.”

And we ran,
Hopping continents –

     I, so to support.
     Our son,
          So to survive.
     My wife in wait,
          Our second miracle burrowed,
          Just beyond the world I’d promised,

A land, so help me, and shore we’d arrive one day.
The Department of Birth Control's hot on our heals. I've gotten my son away from where we were; but two remain and so help me, four will be reunited soon. So yes, that's where I've been and that's what I've been doing.
Liis Belle Sep 2015
Please help me
Don’t turn me away
Please tell me
I am welcome to stay

I have no one, no home
I have nothing at all
Shivering in the night
With clothes that are too small

I risked so much
Fleeing from the horror
Everything I left behind
Was for a better life and future

I almost froze to death
Almost drowned in the sea
Made it all the way here
Just for you to demonize me

Am I not an equal?
Am I not human too?
Please take a moment
To imagine yourself in my shoes

I’m silly, that’s impossible
I am barefoot and helpless
Please just help me, stranger
I’ll be forever grateful for your kindness
Since there has been a lot of news about the refugees and people turning them away, I wanted to make a poem from their perspective - a reminder that they are humans too, and they have nothing. We need to help them.
Nicole Louise Sep 2015
Look.
Look again.
Don't avert your eyes.
Don't keep scrolling.

A boy alone on a beach.
A product of the dry cheeks of Westminster.

Let the image burn.
Burn until you can't escape it.
Burn until it consumes you.
Until it's all you can picture,
until you finally regain a pulse.
Let the sirens inside you begin as you look,
Let the fire of sadness and anger tear through your veins as you look,
Feel your heart pour out into the image as you look,
Picture his mother, childless as you look,
Picture this thousands and thousands times more as you look,
And keep looking...

N.Hedges
My poem in response to the desperate need for aid to the refugees across Europe. The image of the boy on the beach has finally called people to arms to do something. The independant has released an article with links on how you can help. Linked -http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/5-practical-ways-you-can-help-refugees-trying-to-find-safety-in-europe-10482902.html
Each must fulfill their own destiny
or drown in the seas of a fantasy.

Basically,
because being base is what we know
we'd all prefer the fantasy and
for destiny to go.

The oceans run red with the blood of the dead,
fish fingers for supper tonight.
I have drunk of the wine
upon death I shall dine
fish fingers for supper tonight.

Each night,
take to boats and
they're rammed down their throats,
freedom's not free, but they try,
some make it through,
some of them die,
more take to boats
and they try and they try
and some of them die,
freedom's not free,
not for them,
not for you,
not for me.

It must be a heresy
this thing they call destiny
I shall stick to my fantasy
and it's
fish fingers for supper tonight.
Drinking water...tasting salt.
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