Member Poem

Someone has killed my husband.
Now he is trying to kill me and my children.
We run away from the killer,
And towards your home
For many, many days.
Because
I want to live.
I want my children to live.
I know your home is a safe haven.

Exhausted and hungry,
We make it to your doorstep.
I knock on your door,
But you don’t answer.
We camp on your porch for many nights.
I knock on your door each day.
Still, you don’t answer.
Food and water left by the kind-hearted,
Is gone.
Destroyed by your friends.

Now my baby is running a fever.
In desperation,
I enter your home through an open window.
I find you to tell you I have entered,
Whereupon, you tell me I am a criminal,
Because
I entered your home through a window,
Not the door.
I try to tell you why,
But you won’t listen.
You don't even know my language.

Instead,
You put me in jail,
You kidnap my children,
You tell me I am a bad mother,
And that I should never have come,
That I should never have run from this killer.

The next day,
You stop kidnapping the children
of those coming through the window.
Excitedly, I ask you, "where are my children and when can I see them?"
You tell me you don’t know or care where they are.
That I should never have run from this killer.
And that I should never have come.
You tell me I am a bad mother,
And have lost my children.
You send me home
TO DIE.

Previously Published in New Verse News 6/27/2018