How Refugees Arrive
They arrive on foot, on donkeys and by sea,
their clothes in disarray.
Some carry their bundles on their back,
others have bags in their arms.
Inside are all their worldly possessions now.
What’s left behind will have to be forgotten.
They are refugees now, which means they have no possessions,
other than their bundles and the clothes on their back.
Which is why they wear multiple shirts and sweaters.
This is a refugees’ uniform, no matter where they come from.
They carry their babies in a firm embrace.
They trudge along.
The faster ones wait for their families to catch up.
Their family is everything now, in this new world.
They don’t know what this place is, or how they arrived here.
They woke up in their soft bed yesterday, and here they are now.
Or has there ever been a soft bed?
Maybe that was a dream they once had,
Maybe they have always been on the road.
Like a broken army,
they traipse listlessly,
for they have no aim, no final destination.
There’s nobody waiting for them anywhere.
All windows are firmly shut, and the people turn their heads away.
Very moving! And sadly all too true.
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