Apropos “European migrant crisis: Shipwrecks ‘kill up to 700 migrants’ “— a 29 May 2016 BBC headline rhyming with others across the years and media outlets that have the interesting misfortune to cover this first wave of mass displacements in the era of climate change and the global resource endgame that is its cause and effect.
… Here are a new painting (in a series) and poem building on my earlier brainstorming re. how to update the Kindertransport memorial in Berlin.
I want to give the living children flowers.
The dead have stone and petals enough.
I want to give the living children homes.
Not mine; they deserve their own.
I want to give the living children peace.
A living planet. A place of safety. Quiet sleep.
History grinds and rhymes.
At Friedrichstrasse Banhof, I leave flowers.
At the visa office, they tell me:
“This is not how things would’ve gone in your country.”
I want to say: That’s why I’m here.
I got on a plane with a backpack
like our grandparents got on boats
with suitcases and pregnant wives.
But I only nod and think of you.
You are on a boat to life.
You are on a boat to death.
Somewhere, years and storms hence,
you will be telling your grandchildren
how you braved the waters and the hate.
They will be so grateful for your escape.
They will wonder how you carried on.
You will build ships stronger than souls.
You will sing the song that carries us home.
