I Never Suffered

I fell down.

I didn’t break.

I got lost and ran wild.

I found my way.

I often bled.

I always healed.

 

I always had a home.

I never missed a meal.

 

I never had to run.

I never had to hide.

I had my country on my side.

I had family.

I had friends.

I had love again and again.

I never wanted.

I never starved.

I never knew famine.

I never knew war.

I never huddled in the cold and dark.

I never prayed out loud for the bombs to stop.

I never smelled my village burn.

I never listened to my baby’s stomach churn.

I never watched my young son’s eyes go cold.

I never saw my husband’s back bowed low.

I never mourned the loss of my children’s smiles.

I never had to walk a thousand miles.

I never feared the violent seas.

I never felt the world abandon me.

I was never a refugee.

I was never abandoned.

I was never unwanted.

I was never feared

I was never hated…

I never suffered.

 

 

©2017 by Ilona Elliott

 

 

 

• Posted in: Poems ♦ Uncategorized
• Tagged: Empathy, Poetry, Refugees, Suffering, war, White Priviledge