Tag: Empathy Day

This poem is in The Same Inside, Poems about Empathy and Friendship by me, Matt Goodfellow and Roger Stevens, Macmillan

 

Refugee

 

After the bombing

and all are lost

and gone

 

I walk

 

I can carry only

my father’s pride

my mother’s longing

my brother’s blood

my sister’s hope

and my dreams

 

but my father’s pride

cannot be carried

as a refugee

so I lay it down

 

and walk

 

when I sleep

my mother’s longing

is too painful to hold

so I lay it down

 

and walk

 

until my shoes

fall off my feet

and I leave

my brother’s blood

and my own

on the road

as if it is worthless

 

and I walk

so far and

sleep so little

I cannot remember

my dreams

 

so I lay them down

 

I can carry only

my sister’s hope

which is light

 

in my heart

 

 

© Liz Brownlee