Refugee

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 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.