Leave - These Broken Walls Born and raised In a house of warmth and memories. Forty years infused with the smells of tobacco and baharat, Pervading every wall like a coat of daub.
Now the walls are broken, Raised to ruin, And the only smells, Dust and decay and death. At first light as the mournful muezzin cried, The adhan tailed off to silence. Replaced by gunfire and the peaceful prayers that quietly intoned, "Spare us within these broken walls."
And the gentle neighbour who wished peace upon you As the day broke into rubble and smoke, Was laid to rest two hours ago. Cut down by shadows. A decision made. Leave. Turn your back on a life. To save your life.
Leave. To become a non person.
A refugee, a journey-man, At the mercy of others.
Leave.
And feel you have abandoned your country
The guilt of escape, where others could not,
A guilt carried with the few possessions you could take.
Leave.
Clutching your children's hands
Clutching memories to sustain you
In the darkest moments to come.
Leave. Between the shelling hours
Between the dusk and the daybreak. Or become a shadow too.
Leave.
You never believed it would come to this To walk away is the last thing You ever expected to do. Leave.
