Wednesday 20 April 2022

Write... Edit... Publish... April 2022 : A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall

 




There’s nothing much in common between us.

Just the hard, fiery rain of these bullets.

Just the concentric waves of the virus.

But an unequal share of the planet.

 

We’ve nothing in common even as we flee.

Your route’s a black ribbon made of velvet.

And mine’s the pounding of an unkind sea.

A wobbly raft, a camp and a pallet.

 

We just share a word – that's hardly enough.

And we share the cruel falsehoods we are told.

We’re told our rights, a world that waits with love.

But the rights are yours, I’m shut out in the cold.

 

My home, my route, my skin define what I get -

the harder rains. And an unequal planet.





This one's for the refugees, the dispossessed, the asylum seekers fleeing conflict zones across the world. May they find a warm welcome wherever they go and may their tribe and hardships dwindle.


WC - 128

FCA

Tagline : All refugees are equal but some are more equal than others. 



This is a scheduled entry. I am relocating out of India this month and have no idea how I'll be placed for an internet connection when this goes live. But I'll be catching up with you as soon as things are sorted. 

Read the other entries here:


37 comments:

  1. Heartrending. And now yet more refugees are being created. How I long for the day that this is no longer true.

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    1. Me too! But it's going to be a long wait for us, EC! There are more than 84 million refugees, 35 million are children. Now more are being created, and I welcome the sensitivity and solidarity that people are showing the Ukrainians, but nevertheless, the crisis is not going to be resolved unless the major parts of the displaced populations are taken care of, and that's not from Ukraine.

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  2. I can't wait to read about your new home. I'm sure I am kin to Marco Polo albeit with with roots that have me bound to where I was born. But wanderlust is in my veins.

    The world is definitely unfair. I was thinking the other day that the world is incredibly beautiful and horrifying tragic. I still remember the news photo of A Syrian man fleeing with his family. I think of how he is at times.

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    1. It's so strange you should mention Marco Polo - I just finished a book that traces his journey along the silk route from Jerusalem to Xanadu!
      The world chooses to be unfair, and blind to boot. None so blind as those who will not see.

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  3. Hari OM
    Sharp, searing, serving its purpose; it is fair to rage at the inequality even at 'low tide'... YAM xx
    Q=Query

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    1. All my raging is not making a dent anywhere, I often feel...ah well, we also serve who only stand and rage! :)

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  4. Perhaps the kinder treatment of Ukrainian refugees will lead to a rethink of the acceptance of refugees from those countries previously shunned. Or not. You definitely got it right with your tagline -

    'All refugees are equal but some are more equal than others.' Sadly.

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    1. I hope it will, I hope this war will open the world's eyes to how intolerable conditions for other refugees and stateless people are and find a way to give them back their dignity and fundamental rights.

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  5. A poignant, doleful poem. And so true, it touched the heart. Just as it was true 70+ years ago, when George Orwell wrote his Animal Farm: even among equals, some are still more equal than others.

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    1. And instead of the world getting less unequal, more just, we are going at breakneck speed in the opposite direction.

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  6. Powerful. Sadly, humans are equally capable of stupidity and cruelty. We need to be better

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    1. We certainly do! Stupidity, selfishness and cruelty seem to rising everywhere.

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  7. Hi Nila - heartbreaking ... especially now we are apparently going to let people land on our shores, hold them, put them into a plane and transport them over 4,000 miles away to Rwanda - which has appalling humanitarian treatment now. It is inescapably ridiculous and cruel, beyond belief ...

    So glad you've landed ... but this was a superb poem for the prompt, making us think ... thank you - Hilary

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    1. Yeah, I don't know whose brainwave that was! How is it going to work??

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    2. They don't know ... nor do we! Apparently it might have been brought forward to take the 'Partygate' aspect away from Boris ... our Govt seems to do things without having a plan ... disgraceful. Not good - H xo

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  8. I will never understand how people can turn a blind eye to the suffering of others. May comfort and compassion take over the hearts and minds of all people. Well written and so important in today's world.
    Nancy

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    1. We are so numbed to suffering so long as it's not happening at our doorstep...

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  9. Love "the harder rains" especially. I echo everyone's comments!

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  10. This is such a heartbreaking poem, and brilliantly written! I'm fortunate that I've never been displaced from my home. I can only imagine the fear and sadness refugees feel. You did a wonderful job of capturing their plight.

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    1. I am from a Partition family, my grandfather and other family members did have to leave their birthplaces due to it. I heard their stories growing up. It's beyond devastating what refugees/dispossessed have to suffer.

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  11. Nilanjana so poignant and straight-forward. Very effectively done. Gets to the matter, makes no assumptions. Wow!

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    1. Thanks. There are no two ways about it, unfortunately.

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  12. Ditto on all the words above. How well you encompass the truth. Even while showing empathy the world fails miserably. Beautifully told!

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    1. Yes, it heartbreaking the double standards, particularly where the African refugees/migrants are concerned.

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  13. Sadly this is very heartrendingly true "we share the cruel falsehoods we are told". The stories of refugees are the saddest with all that suffering they're subjected to because of arbitrary decisions of people in power. The simplicity of the poem echoes the fact that there's no two ways about it. Nothing justifies turning people out of their homeland.

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    1. We seem to be specialising in turning people out of their homes right now. Forget about ROTW, in our own backyard, in India! It's beyond outrageous what's going on.

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  14. Pen it, sister! I feel this one. Great job.
    Hope your move goes well. And hope you'll end up somewhere nice.

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    1. Thank you, I have. In Fiji. :)
      Glad you liked the post.

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  15. Great poet although heart wrenching and your tag line says it all.

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    1. Thanks, pleased you like the poem, though it would have been nicer not having to write it in the first place.

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  16. It would appear that my previous comment didn't go through. If I'm writing a duplicate, I apologize.
    This is a true and timely poem.

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  17. So heart rending, and the intent was clear right away.

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