Babies in Boats
Refugees, asylum seekers and migrants - current, past and future - on my
mind and in my heart. The child who died crossing the Mediterranean Sea
and washed ashore triggers a memory of a story told by a work friend
long ago - how he did anything his mother asked, no matter how crazy,
because she gave birth to him in a crowded boat on the South China Sea.
Babies in boats. Bodies in trucks reminding me of bodies in other
trucks, tunnels, shallow graves, on long paths to somewhere else.
Friends and family now here who once were fleeing, or whose parents fled
from homelands across the globe. This, from poet Warsan Shire: "You
have to understand, that no one puts their children in a boat unless the
water is safer than the land.” And, “No one leaves home unless home is
the mouth of a shark."
Read her full poem, Home.
No comments:
Post a Comment