If your land was shattered by famine or war,
You’d grab your family and head for the door.
You'd have to travel through places no better than home,
Over the whole world be willin to roam.
Drinking only hope and eating your dreams,
You’d do anything with peace as your theme.
With no other options for life as you please,
You’d pay a captain and take to high seas,
Headed for a real Shangri-La, a land free and fair,
Through dangers untold, you’d swallow your fear.
You see, many have done this, they’re the real deal,
Now you know all this, so how do you feel?
Cause they came all this way only to find,
There’s no Christmas on Christmas Island,
And these kind foreigners are not all so kind,
This isn’t the paradise they were hoping to find.
Seen as the same, they’re hated and despised.
We spit out there name before they’ve even arrived.
Most boat people are legit, but not in our eyes,
Yet no-one’s talking of the hordes from the skies.
We discuss ways to deal with the curse’d boat people,
While shouting messages of love come from every church steeple.
What ever happened to “do unto others”,
Seems our ex-PM’s love only stretched to mothers.
Take a long hard stare in your looking glass,
Cause from where I sit this ain’t the green grass.
I wrote this poem while studying in Australia. I was appalled to hear about refugees being held on Christmas Island (a tiny island in the middle of the ocean between Australia and Indonesia), sometimes for years, while their applications were processed. Many of these refugees were the hated boat-people, who at the time were fleeing from the conflict in Sri Lanka or Afghanistan on rickity boats.
It seems an apt time to publish the poem coming up to yet another Christmas where there will be no Christmas on Christmas Island for the refugees held there.
Yes it is a big problem but they can at least be treated like people who have already suffered enough.
What do you think about this case, or they way refugees are treated?
It seems an apt time to publish the poem coming up to yet another Christmas where there will be no Christmas on Christmas Island for the refugees held there.
Yes it is a big problem but they can at least be treated like people who have already suffered enough.
What do you think about this case, or they way refugees are treated?
Photo of burnt out buildings from The Australian
Micro Poem:
Christmas comes with clanging bells/ calling in the night// but Christmas cheer not all can claim/ with calamity clinging on their characters
Micro Poem:
Christmas comes with clanging bells/ calling in the night// but Christmas cheer not all can claim/ with calamity clinging on their characters
we have this in europe as well...people making their way in crowded, tiny boats across the ocean, some of them die on the way and when they arrive..many of them weak and sick.. the suffering not necessarily ends...it's tough.. i understand that they have to investigate the background of the people and everything but they should try to do it fast and treat them like humans..
ReplyDeletetrue that man...this is def part of the political agenda here in america...the illegals and what to do with them...and snipers at our borders...they have such hope to risk it all only to find they are not welcome...
ReplyDeleteVery interesting poem - it is a problem everywhere - people against refugees do not realize that if they don't want them, they have to try to help their countries so that they can make a life there. Of course, that's not so easy either, as money can flow into corrupt channels. Agh.
ReplyDeleteBut even intention and attention can, I hope, slowly bring change. Your poem part of it all. (I think.) K.
An interesting topic to explore through your poem, and the rhythm of the piece was very effective, nice job.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comments and thoughts gang!
ReplyDeleteI certainly agree this is a worldwide issue and well said ManicDaily that if people really want to stop refugees we should be working to ensure no one needs to flee from their own country in the first place, and certainly not making their home countries worse.