refugee poems

The Second Son of Nasir Ahmed | Katelyn Thomas - Contemporary Poetry Website Featuring Notable Poems

The Second Son of Nasir Ahmed | Katelyn Thomas

She brushes his becalmed lips before
she lifts his spirit-slipped
shell into her husband’s hands.
What do her neighbors say
as they anchor, hearts furled?

Take comfort as if your womb does not
still clench only months after he gasped
his first salutation to the world.
Your son is but a small ship that
has been impaled upon a huge
iceberg of misinformation
and now floats upon the ocean of
blood that flowed in our streets as
he joins those who have already
been broken and shattered on the rocks
jutting from the shores on the far
side of the Bay of Bengal.

Tethers | Stephanie Wilcox - Contemporary Poetry Website Featuring Notable Poems

Tethers | Stephanie Wilcox

That child folded under me like a century of war-torn pages blown away and tethered into nowhere.
Now we sing alone, tearstruck.
A distant home falls harder every second but the skylorn crows don’t stop their skulking.
They are merciless.
One night the breach will break,
The music untangled into rapture beyond earthly recognition will stream through our veins again,
rising against storms that enrage survival.
Let’s leave lovelessness to rot away.
Just stay still with me underneath the stardusted shadow cries while we wait.

Washed Up | Lynn White - Contemporary Poetry Website Featuring Notable Poems

Washed Up | Lynn White

So many dead people
caught in the crossfire
created by the the money men,
the arms traders,
the super ego-ed politicians.
They lie dead where they fell.
Flesh and blood transformed to
fertilizer to nurture the seeds
and grow the crops, in a future
they will not see.
Their bones decaying to dust
to form the building blocks
of homes they will never inhabit.
Dying where they fell,
over there, not here
and not looking like us.
Unseen or soon forgotten
by us here.

But the dead washed up
on holiday beaches
look like our flesh and blood.
They’re wearing our clothes.
They’re washing up to haunt us
in the Old World.
Then there’s the living,
washed up alive
and by any means necessary
moving on to bear witness,
if any one is listening.
To bring the horror home
to those who created it
in the Old World.
Bringing it home to the Old World,
but not as yet to the New.

More at https://lynnwhitepoetry.blogspot.com.

Involuntary Exodus | Langley Shazor - Contemporary Poetry Website Featuring Notable Poems

Involuntary Exodus | Langley Shazor

Moved in thousands
Hordes herded
Removed
Mothers from daughters
Fathers from sons
Husbands from wives
Splintered
Some seeing one another for the last time
Others later reunited
At this moment, neither was certain
Crowded vessels
Where so many sojourn
This final destination
No promised land
Milk and honey, there was not
But flowing nonetheless
A mass influx
Guided under a guise
No rest for the weary

The Sea | Mary Anne Zammit - Contemporary Poetry Website Featuring Notable Poems

The Sea | Mary Anne Zammit

When I open my eyes

Waking up from my dreams.
I felt shocked,
to learn that men have not changed.
That war is still man’s struggle.
Everywhere, around me.

When I opened my eyes,
I only saw women suffering, children misplaced.
In a world where equality and Justice are forgotten words.
So, I closed my eyes and returned to my dreams.
Yes, I still dream that man is compassionate and that one day he will be open to the light.
To peace.
Then, I would open my eyes.

I like to paint the sea,
And write a poem for its beauty,
its moods fascinate me, high, low, loving, destructive.

Still, when I look at the sea,
I see other waves, the countless souls of immigrants perished in sea.
Women, men, children and so I do not feel like painting it.
How I long to embrace the waves hoping to put an end to this ongoing tragedy.

The sea and all the souls behind it.

Flotsam and Jetsam | Colin McCandless - Contemporary Poetry Website Featuring Notable Poems

Flotsam and Jetsam | Colin McCandless

Tossed ashore like driftwood on a beach
Unable to steer a course, your humanity they beseech
Stripped bare, they crawl forth naked, newly born
Will you draw them to your breast, or will leave them forlorn?
The old familiar fears creep in as you clutch your pockets
And turn away from imploring faces and sunken sockets
This is a time for casting judgments aside
For moving forward with arms open wide
But instead the gates are locked and the entrance barred
While the castaways desperation grows, their psyches scarred
No short memory deprivation, your conscience laid clear,
Never will it be forgotten, the events that transpired here

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