Friday, September 18, 2015

'As I Am' by Paul Mein.

 As I am

He is a man,
as I am,
but he plots in palaces,
holy places, holes in the earth.
His words reach
to soldiers, apostates,
blind followers;
words wrapped around
misguided, blinkered philosophies;
bleak words, excluding words,
inflaming words;
words inciting to hatred, killing
with extreme prejudice ­ the women who dare
to bare their heads,
teachers and writers
who set minds free,
the wide­eyed orphan in
the bombed­out basement,
the doctor trapped by bodies
in bold­drenched corridors,
men like me ­whose ‘crime’ is to
be overheard, seen,
in the wrong place, wrong time.
So I run, walk, carry, crawl
with others like me,
to break, an exhausted wave,
on the razor wire
of far borders,
tear gas and batons
our welcome to uncertain freedom;
ripped from our birth-country
because a man, as I am,
decides which side
of colour, belief, tribe
is right or wrong;
a man, as I am,
who plots in palaces...

©     Paul Mein      26/8/15

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