Poem #1283: Magartu Dedefi, Esq.

Magartu lost her sight as a toddler. At age eight,
she was forced to flee her home in Ethiopia.
She settled in Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya
where she excels her peers in academics.
She dreams of becoming a lawyer.
Photo Courtesy: UNHCR

And still we see her rise

Walking on the sunshine

Her face lit up in a halo

That forecasts tomorrow

In live and living color

From war

To take the world

She blind

But she ain't no beggar

She looks just fine

And all set to be a lawyer

Her big dreams

Rattle the glass ceiling

She won't balk

In the face of competition

With her peers

Who ain't visually impaired

She lost her sight

But found the fight

For people deprived

Of their rights

As a platform to thrive

And her smile says it all

She knows she has it all

On her own terms

She wants it her way

No freebies, on equal terms

She'll rest her case.

Akpan

Where You Go To Know You're Alive

Click the image to get there. 
Courtesy: UNHCR

Love is a place in your heart

Where you go to know you're alive.

All you do is press start

And soon you're eating up the miles.

Love can be anything

Can't nothin'  be love but love;

It's the smile you give a kid,

In the whisper of 'Refugees Welcome.'

In that space,

Friendship has a face,

Sharing holds the ace,

And compassion wins the race.

There are no walls

To block feelings between us.

If we can be there

For each other, show we care,

We'll get there. 

Akpan

50 Shades Of Tigray

Nigsty, an Ethiopian refugee who
ran to Sudan while pregnant. 
Courtesy: UNHCR

Updated: January 6th, 2021, 09:20AM

Here I am

Dabbing 50 shades of Tigray

With rapid strokes teasing dark clouds pregnant

Banishing every promise of sunray.

I'm painting my story

On a easel for display

In the soul's gallery

Fine-tuning the horror to bright as day:

Three labored days on the road to Sudan

An expecting, hungry and haunted mother

Prayed, “God, keep my baby in,

Until I set foot in an inn

Even if it's one with the windows punched in.”

Soon Nigsty mothered her daughter

And said, “my hope is that my baby

Can return home safely.”

Up there against the lighter shade is Ngesti

A refugee scholar

Turned teacher in a strange land

Honing her skills making kids young scholars.

You can almost hear that lil homs

Whisper, “I miss home.”

Yesterday, Tsige had a heartful of hope

Today, she sleeps on bare ground

Without a change of wardrobe;

She told her fam they had to ditch town

Dreams of a better life,

Her children's higher education all left behind.

Higher up on the canvas

The picture starts to fade

But alas!

Tigray's skyline is a firework of gray.

Akpan