By William Pitt. This poem is part of our December 2012 and January 2013 focus on Asylum Seekers.
The huts are falling on top of each other,
all trying to find a bit of light;
humanity reduced to nothingness,
while vultures keep their watches,
already nervous for the next meal.
She is all by herself now –
the child is in a larger tent,
where the doctors will decide the future.
A friendly nurse has told her
to go back to her hut and wait –
she won’t change destiny
by glaring into the foreboding distance.
Her loneliness envelops her –
to the left the neighbor is fear –
to the right the neighbor is death.
The smell of degradation looms thickly
and permeates the bodies of passers-by;
a stream of never-ending hopelessness –
and yet – her part is all her own.
Tomorrow might find a solution –
for the world could change overnight.
