Wednesday 24 June 2015

She

In a village, far from memory,
In this half-truth fantasy,
An elder said to She,
'A place exists, across the sea
Free from war and tyranny.
Here they show mercy,
You will have your freedom,
And your dignity.'

So She forsook that life for something more
She sought the land across the shore.

She walked and walked,
She seldom talked.
Mingling with smugglers of flesh
And dealers of death,
Weeping with those who lost their homes
To eyeless drones,
She joined the host of ghosts on boats.

Her eyes saw horrors unfold
Stories forever to remain untold.
Lest we forget?
Best we forget.

At last the white walls of Utopia loomed,
She arrived in the land of peace,
Of hopes and dreams and opportunity.
She did not know that she was doomed.
It was a lie.
Theirs was a different hostility.
Unpitying, unyielding,
This green land
Had lost its feeling.
Stony, bald, white faces,
Stared with indifferent contempt.
They would not rest
Until She went.
Anywhere but here!
Screamed the hatred and the fear.

They cast her back from whence she came.
Nobody ever asked her name.

From the story of She, what have we learned?
I fear We learn nothing until the tables are turned.