Humanitarian

“Today we pause to remember all those UNHCR colleagues and aid
 workers whose lives were taken from them in the
course of their humanitarian work. ”
— Fillipo Grandhi, UN High Commissioner For Refugees.
13 UNHCR staff members lost their lives to Covid-19,
 this poem is tribute to their lives of selfless service to humanity.

There was so much hope,

Many found strength to cope,

Cause they lent a hand to hold

When war shoved folks in the cold,

And situation turned cutthroat

When Covid rocked the boat.

They had hearts of gold

And a handful of bold

And now that their tale's told,

Their legend will never grow old.

There are acts so dope

They stretch thru time

Like a subcutaneous rope

And men of all ages are inclined

To let the story unwind

If only once in their lifetime,

Of the one and three

Who gave it all up for refugees.

The heart never forgets to remember

It will rekindle the ember

Of memory in the cold of December.

Here's to the selfless thirteen

UNHCR aid workers lost to Covid-19.

Akpan

World War C

Refugee mother and child riding
a bike. In most countries, refugees are
excluded from Covid vaccinations.
Photo Courtesy: UNHCR

While men slept

His enemy crept

Up and sowed weed

Among the wheat.

And with morning came

A marauding plague

Of death and decay,

Making broken hearts reacquaint

The process of pain.

The extinction of the race

Is imminent

And Covid-19's now resident.

Folks be booking hospitals

Crawling all over the reception,

Like it's some exotic hotel's vestibule.

ICU Waiting Lists stretch long

Like the book of damnation

Cause patients sucking up oxygen

Faster than plants breed pathogens.

Refugees are the hardest hit

Cause they're denied nationality,

Nobody gives a pin

If they're healthy or sick.

But what if this Virus is man-made?

What if our research steps are ordained?

And we're programmed

On a wild goose chasing our tail?

What if we're left flat on our ass?

Perhaps, hope

Is not the only thing we have,

We might yet, dare to be bold

Cause we may yet redeem man

From a wave of pandemic

That refuses to die

But multiplies variants like a tick.

We fight an enemy that outright

Wastes us with impunity.

Akpan

Variant

Photo Courtesy: Twitter (@AsimBjym)

How do they rest in peace

In the belly of the beast?

Racked by a killing, unfeeling disease

That got them cremating stiff

After stiff after stiff.

What court serves justice

Against a virus

That multiplies rigor mortis

Killing for no probable cause?

They breached the end

Of their ropes,

Ain't no need to pretend

India needs a vaccine overdose.

Initiate a vaccine roll out

Before a nation is wiped out.

A genius in medical science

Is dying of a Covid variant

In a tragic display of irony

Ravaged by a viral tyranny,

This is a test of the int'l community's

Empathy, loyalty and humanity.

Reach out to India

With an overdose of Modena

A sea of Astra-Zeneca

And a truckload of Pfizer.

Prophesy to the wind

And let the answer carry

On a thunder of wings

That delivers healing

On the arms of love unconditional,

Put an end to endless funerals

And toss this box of pandora.

Give access to vaccine

For all of India's masses.

Bring back the good years

Douse the flames of the pyres.

Akpan

Covid Origins

Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the NIAID.
The timing of staff illnesses at the Wuhan lab has raised
questions about whether COVID-19 originated and evolved
in a natural environment, or at the Chinese facility.
Photo Courtesy: Getty Images

From a virology lab

In the province of Wuhan,

Site of unprecedented drama

And conspiracies, like sun

Rising in the ancient East,

Initiating the feast of blood

In the jaws of the beast,

A life-devastating virus

Of controversial origins

Cuts down the sons of men

To the tune of 3 million deaths

And we're still on it.

Still trying to contain it.

The WHO turned the lab

In Wuhan upside down

And still couldn't put a tab

On what went down.

Dr. Fauci now

Pointing to natural causes

Circular argument down-

Sizing it to artificial sources

Yet all the while

People of all nationalities die.

We perish,

Cause we lack knowledge

Hassled like Joe Pesci

On a Christmas Eve college,

Given a runaround

On our own side of town,

By the novel coronavirus

Known as SARS-CoV-2.

The origin still defies us

Infecting, via the CDC, up to

10,000 vaccinated folks too.

The race for a cure is going south

Who the hell let this thingk out?

Akpan

Nepal Got The Virus

Nepal becomes the first country in Asia Pacific to vaccinate
 refugees against Covid-19 — unhcr.org
Courtesy: UNHCR

You harnessed the magnitude

Of a earthquake that shook

The soul of your nation

To its living foundations,

Multiplied it on the richter scale

And shocked the world.

With open arms and great grace

You wrapped safety 'round the displaced

Thru the warmth

Of your embrace.

You rocked their world

And made game

Of beating the virus.

They were refugees

Who've had their share of filigrees

On a 360 degrees

Of tortured rejection.

But you got them vaccinated

From the coronavirus,

Nepal got refugees vaccinated!

A people of no nation.

I've heard it said on occasion;

Love is a virus.

Now you're making us

Desirous

Coveting your space.

You made your case

Now refugees exhale

In the land of exile

Cause Nepal excelled

In service to mankind.

Nepal has got the virus.

Uh uh not that virus.

The real virus,

The greatest force in the world.

That's love

The most powerful infection,

Nepal got unconditional love.

Akpan

Vaccine

Courtesy: @FillipoGrandhí (Twitter)

When the enemy rushes in

Like a Covid stigma via exclusion from vaccine

Steady coming at you like sharks to meat

And you have assumed the name of refugee,

God help you

If your feet don't fail you…

It's like a shot of adrenaline to the head

Feeling the despair of the displaced

Something close to the outrage

Goin' on for the Texas outage. 

Where is that River

Whose very streams make glad

The City of God?

Let it flow to all in asylum,

And flood desolate shores

With monoclonal shots of unalloyed love. 

Today and for always

Let's all raise the refrain,

'If one gets a shot,

All gets a shot.'

It don't matter your nationality

As long as you got your ID;

The soul of a human being.

I have as much right to get a shot,

As you have a right to get a shot. 

Stop the exclusion trend.

Make it happen! 

Akpan

Covid-Related

Courtesy: UNHCR

Darkness falls across the land,

Shooting straight from the East;

From the pockets of Wuhan,

A plague spat from the belly of the beast

A chip of the Apocalypse

Surrounds you in its mist

Then punch you in the gut

With a iron fist

That throws your windpipe into lock. 🔒 

The Reaper awaits with his scythe,

His footsteps alien and lithe. 

You gotta be Spiderman

Or you's a dead man:

Wear a mask, 😷

Wash your hands,

And hog your distance.

Last year, there wasn't no Christmas 🎄

It would be a shame if Santa Claus

Was down with the Corona. 

If we all could share love

On the same level we caught the virus:

With a hug, 🤗

Thro a cough,

In a simple touch,

We'd stare wars

Down and call its bluff. 

We'll tear down walls

By a sneeze n' a stomp. 

But even tho we y'all separated

We still Covid-related. 

We can do this

Heart to heart ❤️we'll knock this.

Roll out the vaccines for everybody,

People of all nationalities

Let's include the refugees,

Together, we'll erase this disease. 

Akpan

Strange Odyssey

Your donation today can help so many people who were already
suffering before COVID-19 and who need us now more than ever.
Click the image to donate.
Courtesy: United Nations Development Programme

Let me hold your hand

It'll be all I need to stand

I'm not one to make demands

Still I'll go with you to strange lands. 

Akpan