I sit down with my family to watch a DVD
Couldn’t afford to pay full price so we bought a copy
Before I put it in the news flashes across the screen
Horrific imagery portrayed scenarios obscene
A war is waging on somewhere, a land that’s far away
Where parents can’t protect their young and children cannot play
I see the country’s name flash past, it causes me to freeze
As I travel back in time and feel the humid breeze
I spent my childhood in that land until we moved away
I cannot reconcile it with what I can see today
The images cut to my heart, causing it to thrum
My mind runs into overdrive, with thoughts it starts to hum
I see my son of 6 covered with ash instead of mud
His trusting big brown eyes portraying hurt whilst flecked with blood
Instead of sitting next to me on sofas full of hugs
He’d cling to me in terror as his land was raped by thugs
Then one day our home would be hit and we would have to leave
No time to stop and mourn the deaths, we’d journey as we grieved
Across a border we would race to seek food and safety
Where we would be farmed into camps plagued by lack and disease
We may try to leave the camps and seek a life elsewhere
Attempting death defying journeys ending in despair
And if, still, against all the odds we lived more days to see
Natives would condemn us as “those dirty refugees”
Living poor and cast-out in the ‘forward thinking west’
Who catalysed and fuelled the wars by thinking they knew best
But instead of facing a life full of sorrow and distress
I sit here with my loving son watching him smile and jest
And thankfulness bathes all my being as I can clearly see
I could have been one of them and they could have been me.
About the Creator
Robyn Keeble MBE
I love to write.
Comments
There are no comments for this story
Be the first to respond and start the conversation.