Poem #1279: They Can Only Imagine

“I imagine in Syria, there are rainbows.” — Ahmed
has learned everything he knows about
Syria from his grandmother.
Almost 2.7 million Syrian refugee children
have grown up outside their country. — UNHCR

They can only imagine

And reignite the imagined

With colored pencils

And desks as their easels

They can only imagine

What home used to be

And tell gutted stories

With a child's crayon

Simple yet vivid imagery

Like painted sad songs

Ballads in graffiti

They can only imagine

Places of exotic beauty

From folktales

Woven by granny

Of epic power fails

And from memory unseen

They create tomorrow redeemed

They can only imagine

A heavy burden

All of a sudden

Shoved on their shoulder

A baton tossed over

How they bear it further

Is yet to be seen

We can only imagine.

Akpan

I Swim For Every Refugee

Yusra Mardini
Swimmer for The Refugee Olympic Team
In the Tokyo Olympics

When I swim

It's not just to flex my fin,

I'm holding it down for my Gs

I swim for every refugee.

When I plunge into a pool

My body becomes a tool

My mission's written on water

I'm writing a soul letter

Telling the world,

Here's a branch snatched from war

Still as good

As the best in the hood.

My skill ain't crude

Goes for the rest of my crew,

I am a refugee

Stroking a legacy

On the surface of a watery grid

Sowing seeds

So refugees may believe

And the world may agree,

If one refugee can swim

Then all refugees can achieve.

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

Aya

Aya, a Syrian refugee painter who is
challenging girls everywhere to take
their place on the global stage.
Courtesy: UNHCR

Beauty

Is in the hand of the painter

Brushing masterful cuties,

Changing the world canvas by canvas

A stroke of faith here

A dash of hope there.

Mixing a collage of variety

Creating a work of ingenuity,

Aya has set the tone,

She's hyped the velocity

She found her zone.

She's painting her voice

Into scenes, on easels, to give

Girls everywhere a choice.

A reason to live,

To not only survive

But to thrive

With the audacity of style.

This refugee called Aya

In the final analysis, is on fire

She holds the power of the sun

On the tip of her fingers.

Her brushes heal the world

The aura of her influence lingers.

She summons her sisters

To rise up a mighty army

Of female resisters

And punch down the glass ceiling.

Akpan

Ailerons

Meet Maya Ghazal,
The first ever female Syrian refugee pilot.
Photo Courtesy: @ghazalmia (Twitter)

I never believed I could fly ✈️

Not until I turned refugee on the fly

That was when I looked out to the runway

And when my gaze landed on an airstrip,

All at once, I became a fuselage.

Now all I needed was wings

And a thrust and a lift.

I'd unlocked the door through which

I bust into my legit takeoff 🛫.

I was really excited to start over,

Here was my shot at a major makeover

There was this deep hunger to ride my storms

On the dynamics of ailerons

That morphed into a searing passion

To soar among the stars

And be redeemed from the stigma

Of these war-etched scars.

Now the world may see a refugee on wings

And that's alright, cause I really had big dreams.

But I'm already staring thru a window

Into endless possibilities

And a brighter tomorrow.

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

Gon' Be A Great Day

Rohingyan Boy with Sesame Street Muppet
Courtesy: UNHCR

It's gonna be a great day today

I don't know what else to say

But this much is my take;

The weather's as good as it gets

So ama suck in a lungful of breath,

Then step out on the exhale. 

It's gonna be a great day today.

The sun plugged the leak of rain

So ama put the wind in my sail,

Ain't letting this feeling in a cage

I'm gonna bust these bars of rage,

It's gon' be a great day today.

Akpan

Kitsa G.

The homely Greek lady who sheltered kids from
war-torn Syria in her home. The children fondly
call her, Kitsa Granny.
Photo Courtesy: UNHCR video

Can I call you Kitsa Granny?

Would I be a bother

If I wet your shoulder

With tears that make me shudder?

Will you push me until I swing high

And catch hope as it flutters like a butterfly?

Ring up war and say, 'Eat your shame!'

There's no home bests Kitsa Granny's embrace.

We have reasons to call you Granny

You're family we never knew we had

Blood that mended these broken shards

You've made us the sum of the part.

Akpan

Say It Ain't

Courtesy: Pinterest

Do you have a freaking soul 

 But maybe even that is sold 

Lookit all the deed you sowed 

All of it and say it ain't so.

Akpan 

Don't Talk About Death

Don’t talk about death

I’m kinda missing life as is

I wish I could be there

I got too much life to live

The theme of the news is death

Facebook posts publish death

YouTube videos produce death

Twitter hashtags…

Git me the hell outta here

Don’t talk about death

I paid my debt

So I just wanna collect

Death is the new pet

In Libya, Syria, Sudan

The whole earth is a battlefield

Blood-bleached sands bleed magenta

Sanity is thinning shield

Don’t talk about death

The auricle is lead.

Akpan

Born To Strange Sights

I was born to strange sights

But there’s none more strange

Than man in his fated plight

Half of humanity is estranged

While the other half is deranged

Life is a gamble

You could get haggled

At the roll of a dice

Kiss of life

Could chill your bone to crystallise

I have observed a nation crash

Because its ruler was rash

In his choice of words

And youths spark a revolution

I have seen refugees welcome

By a state fresh out of civil war.

Akpan

Let's Get Serious And Go To War

Photo Courtesy: UNHCR (modified)

We’ve come too far raise the bar

And erect a gas chamber

Why not toss a bomb

Blow that laughter to kingdom come

Let’s get serious and go to war.

What’s peace

Got to do with't when bliss

Tangos with ignorance

Brotherhood pays penance

We got too much love

To give it snaps the cord

Let’s get serious and go to war.

Drug that wimp

Slug the pregnant bitch

Drown the damn refugee

And put that river on the map

I know you lo’ that

Com’on show me some blood

Let’s get serious and spark a war.

A party ain’t a party

If the war dogs ain’t in it

Get ready to make some noise

Cause the boys gon’ bring their toys

We been having loads of fun

Let’s get serious and throw a war.

Forget breakdancin’

We ammo freelancin’

Bomb some kill ‘em off

An off-the-set James Bond

Don’t show me love

Show me a Kalashnikov

Let’s get serious and bomb the world.

Akpan

Destruction Makes Power

For want of threads of dialogue

A city heads down to the morgue,

And there the ill-fated bullock

Got its horns wrapped around a deadlock.

Out of hatred

Destruction makes power,

Life once sacred

Is spat out like dry powder,

Things gone to a head

Now fall down dead.

Syria

She is by horror haunted,

Rhymes with myriad

As a bomb-tide erases the wasted

Until those 40% bleed or sleep.

The darkness is complete.

Akpan

Tapes

For Assad. Tyrant of Syria.

As sad

As bad

As mad

There are tapes to prove that

You looked sad

When they put you on TV

You looked mad

When they pulled out your CV

You did not take your oat

Before you took that oath

Or you would not turn your office

Into a blood-letting orifice.

You responded to calls for interviews

But would not share your people’s views

You won’t sit down to talk it out

But made up time to run your mouth

You sent your phoenix

Burned the masses to ashes

Turned on your gimmicks

And blew up their asses

            “It wasn’t me.”

So you said.

            “It was him!”

So we heard.

“He’s respected military.

They fuck all night in malefactory!”

So you turned him loose

A mass murderer

You the asswipe fool

And a cobra, you are

As sad

As bad

As mad

There are tapes to prove that.

Akpan