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Refugee
Tonight I awoke
To the voices
The voices that drifted through the darkness
Straight into my soul
Yesterday I stood there, my son beside me
As the “soldiers; dragged my neighbor
From his home
Into the street
For what seemed like hours
They beat him
Cursed at him
Then while he lay there
Broken on the ground
They chopped off his hand and foot
With a machete
They left him there
In the street
To die
That night my son woke me up
Screaming
Please don’t let them get me
He begged
In the darkness
My wife and I gathered all we could carry
And with our son
We left the only home
I had ever known
Not knowing where we were going
Only knowing we must leave this place
Behind
Another voice came
Three men came into our village
Last month
They took my daughter
Along with a dozen other young girls
They left many behind
Slaughtered like animals
For weeks
My cousin and I searched
Through the jungle
And nearby villages
By the grace of God
We found my daughter
We killed the two men who were guarding her
Had we known what they had done to her
Their’s would have been a much slower death
They had passed her between six of them
They had made her their ‘bride”
They deserved far worse
I know we can not return to our village
I know we must go far from here
The only thing I do not know
Is where we can go
To be safe
One voice after another keep coming
We have walked in the desert for 5 days now
Some will give us water
Others give us a place to stay
But only for one night
My children are hungry
They need water
We need a place to call home
We made it to the border
To where we told it would be safe
Men in uniforms shot us with water cannons
And tossed tear gas at us
One of the canisters hit my son in the chest
I am afraid he will be blind now
They have stopped the trains
People yell and curse at us
As we walk by
We have been walking for a week now
I am afraid my wife will not be able to walk
Much farther
I am afraid neither will I as well
What will happen to my family
When I am gone
I woke up
Drowning
In my own tears
All of these voices
Slamming my soul
From so many directions
All of them ending with the same few words
Where can we go
To be safe
Ed Roberts 9/16/15
www.edrobertspoetry.com
Most people do not have to look too far back in their family history to realize that the very lives of our family members often depended on the care and compassion of others. In so many ways, we are all refugees.
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