Tuesday, April 21, 2015

This Is What Desperation Looks Like


This what desperation looks like:
too many people on too small a boat
in the middle of the ocean,
one refugee, with his story, at a time -
grandpas, babies, children, young people -
fleeing war, poverty, persecution,
gunfire, bombs, machetes, 
starvation, rape  -
fleeing all the killing -
over-loaded boats tipping, sinking,
their scant hope for survival
drowning in the waves.

And but for 
an accident of geography,
each of their stories
could be ours.

Prayers for the desperate, 
that they may find safety.
Prayers for those disappeared 
beneath the waves,
that they now know peace.
Prayers for the international community's leaders,
that they may provide urgent humanitarian aid, 
no longer participate in 
the politics of war.

Images on the tv screen are so compelling, refugees fleeing from Libya - people so desperate they  prefer the serious risk of drowning in flight to the terrors of staying where life is untenable. May the world ACT. Day 21.




4 comments:

  1. When I first saw this picture on my ipad, I couldn't make it out. I thought they were M'nM's candy. This is devastating. So true about an accident of nature, but regardless, we are one. So we own their suffering. May your prayer explode throughout this earth. Thank you for this Sherry.

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  2. It is clearly devastating.. and the way to solve it so far from easy.. but in the end it has to be solved.

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