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no safe haven no matter how worthy
a heavy weight sat on my chest,
day 2442,
six years of civil war and
six years of empty promises to
my children who aren’t mine,
my children who must be mine,
my children who have no home.
there’s something so wrong about
seeing tangled, brown hair and sweet, big eyes,
the epitome of innocence and life,
lying motionless, mouth agape and drool
pooling on a doll toy clutched in small, dirt encrusted fingers,
forever frozen in time
and covered in dust.
sun streaks through the dirt room,
can i even call it a classroom
and my children who aren’t mine
sit and count with me
one i promise them,
two they won’t end up like Fariha,
three that i will keep them safe.
I-589
the forms are filled painstakingly,
arabic to english from a
ripped dictionary,
i ignore the blood stains on the edge (what foreigner decided language should be read from left to right?),
so me and my classroom full of children,
My children,
can start anew.
the dull life in a refugee camp
is not for the young,
not for their bright eyes,
but we laugh,
i hold them close and tell them stories of tomorrow
where their numbers won’t be to count rationed food,
but to count the choices they have in life.
they said no
refugee was apparently not good enough for safety,
the “land of immigrants”
not the “land of refugees”
i should have known
my children wouldn’t have a safe life
because an american president couldn’t overcome his islamophobia.
the land of immigrants?
more like the land of hate
a land that will use incoming people
their culture, their ideas, their souls
just another thing to be used and disposed
plastic
invisible to those with wealth.
refugees are unwelcome,
dark skin is unwelcome,
religious people are unwelcome;
it turns out
the american promise,
the promise of freedom and love and acceptance,
is a lie.
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In 2017 President Trump banned refugees from Islamic countries from coming to the US, and in this piece I imagine what it might have been like for people in those countries seeking asylum. I specifically focused on a teacher who loves the students he teaches and wants to grant them a better life but how that dream was difficult to attain.