Refugees- illustrated & honored in poetry

“Another line of exhausted-looking men traipse past to bed down for the night.”  A photo in a Guardian (UK) article carries this sentiment. 
(After you click, page down for the photo.) 


 http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/mar/17/tunisian-volunteers-relief-libyan-border

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Refugees

Deportees trek back

Known by tag

Seething on a dusty track

Sunblind, dust-parched, wary of attack.

Known by teeth

Buried in the forest leaves

Unremembered by wreathes

Losing their past to maggot thieves.

Dystaken, now mistaken

Lost; blasted senses can’t awaken

Berated, hated.  Long past shaken

Wan smiles, no use in dry lips speaking.

Boiled in the centuries' cauldron water

Shivering, fleeing the slaughters 

Withering, unsonned, undaughtered

Rape served as pleasure, offered as barter

Queued in motion, shoulders gone slack -

Misfortunes drop through a gaping sieve

Frightened, picturing their village burned
Sweet hearts, fine minds are cauterized.


                                                                                      
9/2/2011 copy 2011 Patrick Calhoun 29205