DRC Need You

Displaced Congolese kids having a meal at a UNHCR Refugee Camp

Please Assist

Like Breonna was sleeping

When the cops came creeping,

So it came to pass in the DRC,

All was silent and still

When Nyiragongo crept on the scene,

Wasting lives, slaying animals,

Razing farms, spewing lava

Sending people fleeing over

The border into Rwanda.

When a volcano erupts,

Men pay a deadly cost

And it's only human

To lend a helping hand

To show a little kindness

To a thousand displaced Congolese

Journeying back from Rwanda

And cushion the thunder

Putting the people under

And their hearts will be stronger

And their days grow longer

And all their memories fonder.

Share the wonders of love,

Knead your attitude

Hello, world

The DRC needs you.

Akpan

I Still Have Dreams

Eldric Sella
Competing in Boxing at the Tokyo Olympics
as a member of the IOC Refugee Olympic Team.
Photo Courtesy: unhcr.org

I still have dreams

Though my sorrow never sleeps

Still contending with the streams

Of tears and silent screams,

I still have dreams

Making miracles on bended knees

Decoding unsearchable mysteries

I still have dreams

Like the blue seas got shrimps

I still have dreams

I believe destiny's coming thru

I spy tomorrow n' it's all good,

I still have dreams

Even tho my past is grim,

And I'll keep on dreaming

Long after this madness done streaming,

I still have dreams.

I still have dreams

That what tomorrow brings

Is gon' up my blessings

My face is set like flint,

After dreams cease

And the universe peels

Apart at the seams,

I'll still have dreams.

Dreams of touching the sky,

Dreams of wrapping my fingers

Around the bulge of the prize,

Dreams of a uniquely better

Brighter, boosted kinda life

Dreams of being accepted as human,

Dreams to manifest the man I am

And having done all to stand

I still have dreams

That my dreams will birth realities

I still have dreams

That all of my tomorrows

Will nuke the weight of my sorrows

I still have dreams

I still have dreams

That these dreams will bloom

Right through the womb

And raise me up from the tomb

And enact Lazarus Impressions

Like a cup of fresh lime to thirst

These dreams I have

Will the Red Sea halve

Like a raised staff

Parting water to make dry land.

I still have dreams

That the world will see in me

A jewel of humanity,

Sowing seeds of creativity

To fashion scenes for posterity.

I still have dreams

Of churning my darkness to release

Me into a thousand beams

Of light that keep on shining

And shining and shining… 

I still have dreams

In the midst of these miseries

Surrounding me like the seven seas.

Akpan

Visual Cancer

Source: twinkl.co.uk

For all displaced persons. 

I see dead people

Still breathing but like pimple

On the face of the earth

Cause we erased principle.

Like living substance of death,

They are situational zombies.

We call ‘em refugees

They go ahead of us

Straddling our vain conceit

To report our bloodlust

How we downgrade human dignity

And upgrade hateful wars.

I see displaced persons

Burnt twigs snatched from the fire

Our yet-to-be-learned lessons

Feels like I’m preaching to the choir.

If this situation is critical

Response ought to be reciprocal.

Akpan

Refugee Nation

Yolande Mabika member of the first Team Refugees
displaying the Refugee Olympic Team flag

Sometimes I wish I was a refugee

I wish I can dip my toe in strange soil,

Claim the skies and build a world without boundaries.

In a strange land to raise redemption’s song

Hauled on the buzz of people who’ve lost everything

Yet invested with the greatest of gifts, I’ll rise

Above the fears and doubts and corruption of beauty.

And I’d relish the right of giving one lifetime twice.

My very own second shot at making first impression,

I’ll devastate captivity and make an art of destruction.

I’ve waded a hundred rivers of hurt, fears and blood but

The yet uncharted rivers will carve pinions for my cross.

Raison d'être tossed in war opens up to freedom’s porch

I could almost engage it cause it’s breaking with the dawn.

All the virtues I’d have been busting loose in a fresh me.

Sometimes I wish I was a refugee.

Akpan

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• Rio Olympics Are Over, So Where Will the Refugee Athletes Go Now?
• Syrian Paralympic refugee dreams of home

Houdini Girl

 

When Yusra Houdini (I mean Mardini) fled from Syria to Europe, her boat’s engine died and it began to take on water, Yusra pushed the boat towards Greece for 3.5 hours. She swam for her life and lived to swim for the first Refugee Olympic Team (ROT) at the Rio Olympics.

They all could have gone to heaven in a lil’ rowboat

Fetching the blind denouement to lives built on tragedies.

They thought it was the end of a beautiful anecdote

But your charm and grace brought a twist to the story,

Plotting a route thro troubled waters like a sea creature

You were the courage-fueled motor that found a landfall,

A personality having in herself facility to produce light.

Hardiness of your heart has percolated into souls to ignite

And crystallize minds that otherwise was habitat to despair.

You are the dream and the hope of 21 million battle-scarred.

Akpan

Related articles

• The Refugee Olympic Team Now Has Its Own Flag and Anthem
• UNHCR #WithRefugees petition heads to UN Secretary-General
• Refugee team adds luster to the Olympic ideal
• Olympian Swam Three Hours To Save 20 Refugees While Fleeing Syria
• The Refugee Nation Creates Flag for Refugee Olympic Team
• All-new refugee team wins hearts, if not medals, at Rio Olympics

By the Lapels

Popole Misenga
Courtesy: @Refugees

This is the fourth in a poetry series created from lyrics of musical classics.

The piece you are about to read begins with the fourth line of the song

 “Easy” by Lionel Richie.

You see, I begged, stole and I borrowed

I got my priorities and focus zeroed ‘n.

Perched on the lip of a 10,000 foot drop

Every muscle and hair in my follicle’s worked up

I’m worked out but I’m still taking this fight to the limits.

Aint asking many questions just backed up by one reason;

I’m still breathing fire from residuum of cold clinkers.

If I lost everything, I gave it up to pull things back together.

Water breaks on my brow, salt hits my eyes produces tears

But you won’t see me coming cause I’m mo than these years.

Measure of my fears don’t amount to the aim of my goal

You see, I begged, stole and I borrowed.

Akpan

One

Courtesy: UNHCR Kenya

To the memory of the 22 aid workers killed and 100 people injured that day when the UN Headquarters in Baghdad was bombed. And all those who continue to dedicate themselves to helping others.

I never thought the word one could amount to much.

Like what can one man do in this crazy world, after all?

That was all before I looked in a mirror and set my eyes on you;

And I knew one could sometimes translate as beautiful.

I never knew the word one could create such earthy symphony:

Like one people, one song, one dance, one humanity,

One hope, one faith in one love in sync with one heartbeat

Sweeps the mind off its feet yet it’s the definition of you and me.

Akpan