Destiny of the Dispossessed

As you flee behind you hear Your hate filled screaming foes Pillaging and burning Their tutored hatred beyond reason For no reason Loudspeakers hastily erected amongst the rubble Play a dirge of victory As they hold a pyrrhic parade As you flee to who knows where North, south, east or west? Don't know. Don't care Just away Unknown lands ahead There be monsters? You only hope you've left them behind As you flee you see the broken crowds A caravan of the barely living Some men and children in uniforms Now just costumes Clutch their weapons that failed them The debris of war litter the poisoned earth Twisted metal entomb twisted flesh Broken souls pass by Your town is gone Your home is gone Your family - alive or dead - gone Your life - your past - gone Your food - the last scrap - gone Your water - the last drop - gone Your hope - gone You have nothing But you are not nothing As you flee become the seed That penetrates a fertile land And makes it grow afresh You may fall on stony ground As many will As you flee you reach the well meaning camps A pale shade of existence Living in forgotten limbo As you flee strike out to promised lands Schizophrenic peoples that both welcome and revile As you join their underclass A scapegoat for all their ills Cast aside your skills, your art, your education And toil and sweat on the work that no-one wants And when you finally accept this is your lot Toil and sweat for your children Who can never understand your struggle, your journey But carry the seed of your people Maybe one day they will return home And rebuild Entry to the "travel light" contest Written 12th January 2017