Refugees Poem by James Tipp

The pain and exhaustion are writ large on every face
Young or old, man or woman, child or young adult
All bear the same marks, all wear the same expression
Hunted and haunted by what they have been through.
Strip away their nationality, their language, their culture
The results are like looking in a mirror, they are human.
Their pain is identical to what ours would be if roles changed
If we lost all, home family, children possessions, identity.
They are not aliens, they are not other, they are family
This globe on which we all have our being is fragile
Small, in the vastness of the cosmos, in time and place
We are the keepers of history of our journey, and so we are one
There is nowhere else to go, this is all we have, so we must share,
It resources, its space, the good characteristics of this species,
Such as love compassion mercy let these rule our responses.
Seek to see yourself in the tired and weary faces of the disposed,
Make love not war a reality and not an empty pithy saying.