Refugees Make The world Go Round

Today's World Refugee Day
Image Courtesy: UNHCR

Refugees make the world go round

Same world tried to run 'em aground,

So we celebrate World Refugee Day

Cause everyday is a murder day

Not cause everyday's a holiday,

Ethnic cleansing is kids at play

And cruel wars have come to stay,

But we'd celebrate for no reason

And joy would be vague n' a treason,

If we wasn't celebrating people

Fleeing home

Where violence became a staple,

People who reached out to hope

When hope dug a hole

In their soul

And shooed 'em out in the cold.

And now they're raising a torch

In the thick of our darkness,

To guide the world

With the light of their brightness

Cause only together with refugees

Can we really heal

The horror that slithers in the still

Of the night when dreams are starlit,

Only together can we learn

To mend the broken cistern

And combine a beam of 10,000 lights

To ignite each other to shine

In a world where refugees

Compete in the Olympics

Like the swimmer called Yusra,

Are helping to fight the pandemic,

Fighting for youth rights like Aya,

And Ramatulahi who's a lawyer,

Making aviation history like Ghazal

And there's a lady who's a doll maker,

The Olympian who's a mental health worker,

And of course, the professional footballer.

Refugees are writing their names in gold

On the cosmic walls of this globe.

Akpan

Long Lasting Love

Courtesy: pbs.org

If we'd step way back

Like a throwback

If we could lay back

In the eternal arms of love

And all was well with the world.

If we adopt peace

As a product of justice,

If we toss in a piece

Till wrath is appeased

And end violence on our streets,

Identify the enemy,

The bombsight of the beast

We gon' solve this chemistry,

Unmask the poltergeist.

If we trade the noise

For the sound of one voice,

We'll elect a golden choice,

Defeat this pandemic

And obtain victory that's epic.

Let the lifeline

Pay out like

A bust of fresh lime,

Quit chasing the dime,

It makes you a ball of slime.

If love is your pantomime

Then your life will rhyme.

Be Love, it ain't a crime

Hate's a greater pandemic

Wreaking worse ill than Covid

That's wasting millions, it's pathetic.

So step back

Lend a helping hand

To folks on your path

See if it don't come back.

Akpan

I, Human

Refugees Are Human.
Syrian child refugee.
Courtesy: UNHCR

I am human just like you

You know?

I had friends and family too

Before war came and rocked the boat

And turned my whole

World misty blue.

Now I need you,

I won't lie, I know I do.

There are mountains that we

Together will climb

If you respect the humanity

Inside of me over this slime

That's pointer to my misery

There's a leader within

Pressing for that upward lift

That will unlock his breakthrough.

I can take you

To a brighter tomorrow

If you will just help me

Walk this winding road

To a rediscovery of exotic

Destinations where I will

Cast off all burden

And tend my purpose

Like a veritable garden.

A complete stranger to hopes,

I'm surrounded by foes

Fate knocked me, with grave blows,

Off my highs, down to my lows.

Still as I reach out to you

Reach out and take my hand

Fly me to a place void of gloom

And I'll stand forth like a man

And like a phenomenal woman

Because I am human

And intend, refugee

or not, to remain human

And love and live completely

And hope and believe explicitly

And be free to pursue my dreams

And never ever stop being free.

Akpan

Updated: June 2nd, 21

She's The Law

Ramatullahi, the Somali refugee
who recently bagged a law degree.
She's the first in her family.
Courtesy: UNHCR

Yo! Bartender! pour out the drinks, 🍷

It's time to make the glasses clink. 🍻

Let's raise a toast 

To the one-woman👠show,

The celebrant and the host.

Rama was repulsed by anything less

And so she raised the bar, ⚖️

And hit the top of the shelf

From the downtowns of Somalia.

Now she lives on this side of town

Where wings no longer count.

She was a refugee,

She drafted her own creed,

She then bagged a law degree,

She's but the first in her pedigree.

Congratulations to the Somali

Vamos! Ramatullahi!

And when you wear that gown,

Girl, straddle that wig

Like a diamond-studded crown,

Cause you is a queen.

I raise my glass 🥂

To a lady of class.

Akpan

Heart That Bleeds

It's the heart that bleeds
That may tell sorrow's tendrils
The ferocity of its squeeze
When it chokes your heartstring.

Akpan