To Listen to Music While Reading this Poem, just Click Here!
Click Here To add this poem to your "Voting Possibilities" list!
Asylum Seekers They crept in darkness, climbed aboard Money changed hands to the overlord Pathetic passengers, hungry and cold Clung desperately, young and old. Refugees; South China Seas Doomed families Driven by fear, lit by hope All boarded the leaking boat. Australia, land of opportunity Not for these thirty-three Imprisonment awaited the refugee Barbed-wire compound, three meals a day. At least we feed them; place to stay A voyage so long had come to it's end Christmas Island around the bend Seas were unkind that fateful day. Rudder snapped, fell away Refugees screamed, tried to pray Our men tried to save them, threw them ropes Raging seas dashed more than hopes. |
Additional Notes:
Christmas Island is a place where refugees are taken for processing when they land. The boat people arrive in leaking boats seeking a better life in Australia. This particular boat load drowned in rough seas, one survivor( a little girl) is now an Australian citizen.
This Poem was Critiqued By: Tony P Spicuglia On Date: 2012-01-07 10:54:02
Critiquer Rating During Critique: 9.81818
Kay, a piece like this leaves me wishing for one or two clues. With regard to that I shall speak as if I know the general appliance, rather than the specific inference.
There is a historical feel to the piece; that of the Polynesians and their wide travels, that of Christmas Island, that of rickety boats.
Then there is the common, often too common, worldwide vision of refugees, whether for SE Asia, Haiti and Cuba, or any of a hundred hot spots that drive people from their homes for the need to survive.
And lastly, you share with us those benefactors who try, who try and are only partially successful, those who don’t know what to do, but know they must do something. And the refugees, clinging to that scant hope.
If I were to add a specific critique, although I know you must have purposefully left the image vague, it would be to specify in a word, the actual event. Your writing of it still would regard the general concept as the coupled image.