I leave behind the rubble of my home,
the broken dust was once four sturdy walls.
Ahead may lie my freedom or my death,
behind me is a land where darkness falls.
Behind me are the dying and the dead,
starvation and the hopelessness of thirst.
Ahead two thousand miles of dangers lurk,
still I will never ask why we were cursed.
I must be strong though we have nothing now,
but just the love within a family.
And that will see us through the foreign lands,
to safety and our final destiny.
I take with me my wife and daughter too,
my infant son, and hope to light the way.
Together we'll endure this brutal path,
we have been blessed with yet another day.
I wrote this from the point of view of a father because I am a father. I tried to imagine going through an ordeal like being a refugee, the father trying to be strong and calm. The language of the poem is intentionally understated.
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem
Well done. This is in stark contrast to some of your other poems on the subject. I like that you presented a different perspective and empathized with the refugee experience in an inderstated way, which is probably what a father must do the help his family. Hopefully, such an approach reminds the reader that these are regular people just like the rest of us, but in a really dark place and in need of a hand. Thanks.
That was exactly what I was trying to convey. Thank you for reviewing.