Refugee
POETRY FORMAT, 1 Apr 2013
Tom Greening – TRANSCEND Media Service
Take my land, take
the brook where I caught my first fish,
the field my grandfather
cleared of rocks and stones with
a tired mule,
the dirt where my mother
is buried.
I surrender. Take
it all.
I don’t want it, you
need it, want it,
kill for it.
I’ll abandon my post,
run away, hide.
I’ll live on the road
in someone else’s country.
I’ll buy false papers
or manage with none at all.
I’ll join the homeless masses,
the dispossessed, and
I’ll be free, while you
are chained to your AK-47.
You’ll have a country,
I’ll have none.
My hands will be clean
while yours have women’s
blood on them.
You’ll be a prisoner
of all you have killed.
But I’ll bear the shame
of being a coward.
You’ll be the patriot,
the conquering hero.
My critics will say
I’m a fool, that no
child was saved by my submission.
Perhaps they are right.
I know nothing, only that
no cubic foot of land is worth
one slaughtered child.
____________________
Tom Greening: “I engage in five professional activities:
Faculty Member at Saybrook University
Private Practice of Psychotherapy
Clinical Professor of Psychology, UCLA
International Editor of the Journal of Humanistic Psychology
Writing (Poetry).”
http://www.tomgreening.com/c_writer.php#
This article originally appeared on Transcend Media Service (TMS) on 1 Apr 2013.
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