Nothing Left To Give

Hanan sold her carpets, television and furniture to pay
for basic living costs in Lebanon. As desperate families
deal with economic collapse they need support now.
Photo Courtesy: unicef.org

I'm gon' believe

Like there's nothing

Left to give

I'll lift my face

And catch the morning drift

I won't resign to fate

I'm gon' live

Like there's nothing

Left to give

I'm gon' feed

Everyone of my lil' ones

Give 'em care and warmth

With the light of humanity

I'm gon' give

As much as I get

God's not finished with me yet

I'll keep trusting

Even against reason

I'll just do it

Like there's nothing

Left to give

I'll smile

When tears fill my eye

But I won't cry

I'll leap on the

Neck of the wind

And glide

From side to side

Like there's nothing

Left to give

I'll keep looking up

I'll keep holding on

I'll stay in the groove

And do what I gotta do

And when hell boils over

I'm taking it personal

And I'll give it

Like there's nothing

Left to give

Nothing left

Of myself

To give

Nothing to give.

Akpan

Refugee Is Nothing But A Name

 

This is the victory

That exonerates a refugee

Gives him an identity

Makes him competitive

Gives him leverage

Makes him all the rage

Erases his disgrace

Gives him a face

A state

No more a beast

Of no nation

He pumps his fist

In the face of extradition

He has a new name

He redefines his game

He strips off his shame

Nothing's the same

Once a refugee

Now a citizen

Flaunting a degree

School set him off

On the right track

No longer on the run

Education got his back

This is how he redeems

Himself from a nobody

To a legit somebody

How he rises from the gravel

To the good side of the gavel

How he escapes the pits

And upgrades to status of elite

This is the key

To the city

The pathway to nationality

The portal to coveted future

The thread that sutures

Him to a place of origin

To a point of new beginning

Where he casts away

Rags of an old name

Not for glory or fame

But for equality and a place

Among the human race.

Akpan

Intense Conflict

Adham, 6, from Aden in Yemen misses his friends. Many of them
have left the neighborhood with their families because of the
intense conflict.
Photo Courtesy: UNHCR

Sunshine packed

And ditched this side of town

Loneliness is laid back

And that's situation on ground

My town is sacked

Gloom got the knack

For getting my wall cracked

I'm torn

Good friends I had

Good friends I lost

Ain't got no friends

No more

Acquainted with pain

My lungs grow sore

From lonely sobs

I can't ignore

This gaping loneliness

This emptiness

Creeps up on me

Surrounds me

It taunts me

Robs my reason for living

For loving

Phantoms of silence

Took up residence

Here, here and here

The resident essence

Curates an atmosphere of fear

Sunshine left town

Smiles left for frowns

Voices of laughter

For choices of disaster

It's not safe

Living in my space

It's just sad

No one holds my hand

Playgrounds

Are haunted by bloodhounds

Who thrive on battlegrounds

The play we used to play

Traded for hopes of a brighter day

Sunshine went away

With good friends

On a one-way train.

Akpan

Kayak Khalifa

Khalifa is a Syrian refugee who participated in the Tokyo
 Olympics🗼as a member of the Refugee Paralympic Team (RPT).
Photo Courtesy: UNHCR

Taking risks gave me hope

When the only hope I had

Was the shadow of a home

Blown from hell to breakfast

Hope that cut a path

Thru troubled ravine waters

And washed up to me

In the form of a light narrow

Boat that took me out kayaking

On turbulent waters to tomorrow

I used to be the King of sorrow

I begged, stole and I borrowed

Every squeeze of hope

I could scrounge from the barrow

Here I am

A self-made man

Cutting legacies

Into the skin of canyons

Building concrete dreams

On waters with my new companion

Painting bouquets with the crayon

Of my paddle like the staff of Aaron

I'm charting a path

Over troubled waters

With my kayak

And it's all that matters

This is where I wanna be

I am a free spirit

Wheeling the forces of nature

Like ancient Inuits

Making live sculptures

With every stroke

An emphasis of hope

That echoes my heartbeat

A thumping will to live

Taking risks

Brought me hope

When all my chances

Were nothing but zero.

Akpan

Thru The Window

Thru the window into Yemen before the outbreak of war. After more than six years of conflict, millions of displaced Yemenis are only a step away from famine. Photo Courtesy: UNHCR

There was a country

Where the trees were green

And the view thru the window

Was a bouquet of hope

There was a country

That came thru as a mockery

Of its very own scenery

It became a cradle of famine

Where people starve and their

Flesh pine away to the bone

A home of despair

That's no longer really a home

There is a country

Where the memory of peace

Is the reality of its tragedy

And a peek thru the window

Is greeted by images of dystopia

It's the abode of sorrow

And wallows in myopia

Cause war continues within

The walls of that country

Devastation in the midst

Of plenty

The death rate's overwhelming

Chances of survival plummets

Every fleeting moment

There is a country

Where it's demeaning

To look out the window

Or even open it

To hear the howls

Of a million lost souls

Screaming like banshees

From the mounds of their ashes

Saying ‘it's a lost cause

‘Bounce while you have a pulse.’

There was a country

For all and sundry

Then men got greedy.

Akpan

Asterisk

Syrian refugee girl. She has since been evacuated.
Photo Courtesy: UNICEF

Assad,

Take a look at me now

You think you can top that?

Gon' take more demonstrators out?

Send your fighter jets down

I am the Exhibit X

You can't just hit the Delete key

I'm not an asterisk

On your war inventory

You can hate on me

But you can't erase this,

King of the rubble

You went thru all the trouble

Yet I stick out like a stubble

Take out the wool

From your eye

And see the pool

Of blood stretch like the Nile

Who do you persist

In your state of denial

When children are deceased?

You fund a war

To stay in power

Waste a nation

Cowering in your high-tower

Resorted to bloodshed

To further your cause

The people you swore to protect

You sacrifice for political affiliation

Shudda resigned

If you really cared

About the sanctity of life

Your butt's squared

Cause politics is not do or die

You shudda walked away

Even you knew the stakes

You shudda left the state whole

And prevented the death toll

It belongs to the people

And ain't nobody dying but us

You made us rubble

Acquainted us with torture

You ignored the risks

And made kids mere asterisks.

Akpan

Maud

Ahmaud Arbery, the young black man who was shot by
three white men while out jogging in his neighborhood.
A jury of eleven white and one black man convicted
 all three of murder.
Photo Courtesy: Dr. Bernice A. King

Eleven white jury

And one black fury

Who stuck out the sides

Of the eleven like injury

It couldn't be otherwise

While it went down

For real as the deep south

Went all out

Against racial malice

It's sure going down in history

They never come by ones

They come by threes

Armed with shotguns

On shooting sprees

They killed Ahmaud

Shot down Arbery

'You've done nothing wrong,'

White father said to killer son

Body streaked with blood

Of black jogger on the floor

Justice been long coming

And when it did come

It was the box office

This one

Goes out to Maud

Who did nothing wrong

Yet got shot for a jog

Blood from Africa

Killed for jogging while black

We're thankful for the guilty verdict

And Maud can now rest in peace

And the power of his legacy

Let the word go forth

All over the world

The killers of Maud

Got their butt

Kicked in court

This ain't no dime n' nickel

Story it's definitive victory ✌️

Bigger than a news article

Like 'Ahmaud Arbery:

A black man who was shot

And killed while out for a jog.'

Maud's a new lease of life

For everyone who fights

For the human right.

Akpan

Out Of Aden

Aden, 6, was born on the move after her parents
 fled fighting in Darfur. She's about to begin school
 in Medenine, in southern Tunisia.
Photo Courtesy: UNHCR

When she smile

Eden like the sun rise

Thru the windows of her eyes

And tho she got the pen

Upside-down in the picture

It's a sign of how she gon' stem

The world's downward spiral

And restore a prodigal

She lays that smile

On that attitude

Like she got 10,000 sunshines

Locked on her altitude

When she smile

She takes tragedy for a ride

This is where the sun comes

For its booster shot

Hope resides

In the arc of that smile

The escape from Darfur

Preceded her coming

Her parents were on the run

When she bust on the scene

After inheriting a miserable life

She's twisting fate's hands 

She's taking charge of her life

And bulldozing a new path

With a disarming smile

She's on the move

She's going to school

And taking her smile with her

She's packed an arsenal

This is Aden

A young girl with eyes

As promising as Eden

A million suns rise

In her countenance

She's the victor of circumstance

Cause when she smile

It says it ain't over by a mile.

Akpan