In The Park Poem by Ashley Akari

We huddle together,
Hunched in the howling wind,
Crumpled newspaper the only shield against
The cold clawing at our skin.
The rain gnaws at our shaking bones—
But it’s not so cold as our tears.

Yes:
Turn your eyes and stare—
Condemn us with your righteous glance-
These are faces you will not forget,
Faces we will not let you forget.

These hands you see,
So greedy, so torn,
Would grasp the tender hand of a friend.

These eyes,
So cold, so hard,
Long to with their light caress
The bright face of a non-existent child.

These lips,
So thin, so twisted,
Would offer a tender, tremulous kiss….

Like animals,
We live to survive;
Selfish we contend for every scrap….

Yet we too were once human:
We, like you, once quivered
With the joy of living,
Rejoiced with the rising sun.

But now,
We wake from the kind Oblivion
And wish the sun
Never rose in our eyes.

Death—for us—
Is no dread Phantom,
But a friend long-coming:
The longed for rest
Whole and not plagued by fears.

But even we have dreams:
In the black pits
Of our hearts we hope,
We long,
To be freed from the shackles:
Free from the miserable
Monotony of a hopeless life.

We long to love
And be loved:
To esteem and hold near
Those we would hold dear—

We look for a Day
When ‘home’ will be more than a word,
When we look upon our children
And see no mark of suffering:

The Day when the shackles will be loosed,
And we’ll see a rainbow in our skies….

But our hearts have been
Frozen too long,
And our hands have been
Turned to violence.

Yes, scorn us,
You who live in the World of Light:
Crush us, despise us
As you would grind sly vipers
Beneath your feet:
But know this:

We are only people waiting for someone to care.