Wraithlike and blanketed in misery
They crouch, wriggle, and crawl in stealth
Huddled and bundled in human stench
From the assembly of war, into a cauldron of hate.
A canvas of faces oozing lives well-travelled
On land and sea that you can’t even unravel
Like fumes that come from the back of the lorry
You’re spewed in haste and asked to scurry.
Jarred with broken dreams, you trekked the scorching sand dunes
Braved the nautical graveyards, in search of blissful epiphany.
Bootlegged into Sangatte, all they wanted was your money
In Exchange for sniffer dogs and barb wires for company.
In this staging post of human trafficking
With hopes fossilised on the banks of Lampedusa
And dreams splattered on the fences of Sangatte.
Your humanity is cremated in demarcated canvas.
From the Nubian dunes of the unmerciful Sahara
To the jungle jewels of the meandering Limpopo
Driven by the dogs of war, through road blocks of frozen land
In search of the holy land, where gold and silver pave the land
Disembarked on the banks of demarcated daydreams.
From far flung regions, into depths of despair.
You huddled through roadblocks but right into another.
With all your frozen dreams, thawed into thin air.
Kept in pens and fenced from the rest
For good fences make good neighbours.
As day follows night, dreams into nightmares
You wish you died, and ignored the snare.
From the serenity of your homeland
Your mother’s heart bleeds for your voice
As day follows night, she waits and waits
How would she know, you never made it?
You ran from the shadow of war
Seeking the shade of peace
And thought you sought your nadir
Only to live your frozen dreams.
With your repository of perennial courage
Looking for penitential acceptance
But dumped by the delete button
On the sands of Lampedusa.
You look back and the sunset is far away
Away from where you have come
As the sun goes down with you.
You wish, you never set out to come.
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