This week is Refugee Week. A week that celebrates the contribution, creativity and resilience of refugees and people seeking asylum.
A few months ago Jan and I went to a reading at Simply Books in Bramhall given by the poet Brian Tilston. We bought a copy of his book “Days Like These – An alternative guide to the year in 366 poems”. Brian’s writing can be funny, witty and serious. This is his poem for 20 June. I reproduce it here in full – without his permission. I hope that he will forgive me.
Refugees
They have no need of our help
So do not tell me
These haggard faces could belong to you or me
Should life have dealt a different hand
We need to see them for who they are
Chancers and scroungers
Layabouts and loungers
With bombs up their sleeves
Cut-throats and thieves
They are not
Welcome here
We should make them
Go back to where they came from
They cannot
Share our food
Share our homes
Share our countries
Instead let us
Build a wall to keep them out
It is not okay to say
These are people just like us
A place should only belong to those who are born there
Do not be so stupid to think that
The world can be looked at another way
(now read this poem backwards)