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Thursday, March 23, 2023

EXILE

by Joanne Kennedy Frazer


Tapachula, Mexico, Mar 21 (EFE).- Thousands of migrants showed up here Tuesday at the offices of Mexico’s National Institute of Migration (INM) to apply for permits to travel by air to cities near the border with the United States. The travelers are using CBP One, a mobile app created by US Customs and Border Protection, to apply for asylum in the United States. CBP launched the app after Washington announced that it was ready to accept 30,000 migrants a month from Venezuela, Nicaragua, Haiti, and Cuba. —La Prensa Latina, March 21, 2023


we do it to survive
leave all we have known
a ripple in the river of humanity
 
we walk away from dried water  
carry music       stories of the ancients
that tell us who we are
 
we carry our beloved
bewildered children
on our backs      in our arms
 
we trek through jungles
cross over mountains
find         climb over bodies
 
we land in holding pens
of unknown places          disconnected
as the world runs in all directions
 
we ache for a welcome where one day
we will attain dignity        serenity
drink from renewed wells
 

Joanne Kennedy Frazer, a retired peace and justice director and educator for faith-based organizations, is a third-act-of-life poet. She enjoys writing on issues of justice, the natural world and spirituality. Her work has appeared in numerous anthologies, journals and e-zines. Her second chapbook Seasonings (Kelsay Press) will be published in early 2023. She lives in Durham, NC.