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<font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=2> On Refuge and Language, Suheir
Hammad <br>
<br><br>
I do not wish<br>
To place words in living mouths<br>
Or bury the dead dishonorably<br>
<br>
I am not deaf to cries escaping shelters <br>
That citizens are not refugees Refugees are not Americans<br>
<br>
I will not use language<br>
One way or another<br>
To accommodate my comfort<br>
<br>
I will not look away<br>
<br>
All I know is this<br>
<br>
No peoples ever choose to claim status of dispossessed <br>
No peoples want pity above compassion <br>
No enslaved peoples ever called themselves slaves<br>
<br>
What do we pledge allegiance to?<br>
<br>
A government that leaves its old<br>
To die of thirst surrounded by water<br>
Is a foreign government<br>
<br>
People who are streaming<br>
Illiterate into paperwork<br>
Have long ago been abandoned<br>
<br>
I think of coded language<br>
And all that words carry on their backs<br>
<br>
I think of how it is always the poor<br>
Who are tagged and boxed with labels<br>
Not of their own choosing<br>
<br>
I think of my grandparents<br>
And how some called them refugees<br>
Others called them non-existent<br>
They called themselves landless<br>
Which means homeless<br>
<br>
Before the hurricane<br>
No tents were prepared for the fleeing<br>
Because Americans do not live in tents<br>
Tents are for Haiti for Bosnia for Rwanda<br>
<br>
Refugees are the rest of the world<br>
<br>
Those left to defend their human decency <br>
Against conditions the rich keep their animals from <br>
Those who have too many children <br>
Those who always have open hands and empty bellies <br>
Those whose numbers are massive <br>
Those who seek refuge <br>
From nature’s currents and man's resources<br>
<br>
Those who are forgotten in the mean times<br>
<br>
Those who remember<br>
<br>
Ahmad from Guinea makes my falafel sandwich and says <br>
So this is your country<br>
Yes Amadou this my country<br>
And these my people<br>
<br>
Evacuated as if criminal<br>
Rescued by neighbors<br>
Shot by soldiers<br>
<br>
Adamant they belong<br>
<br>
The rest of the world can now see<br>
What I have seen<br>
<br>
Do not look away<br>
<br>
The rest of the world lives here too<br>
In America<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
************************************************************************
<br>
"Love the people, serve them and become a part of
them."--Leila Khaled ('My People Shall Live')<br>
<br><br>
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<font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=2 color="#FF0000">The Freedom
Archives<br>
522 Valencia Street<br>
San Francisco, CA 94110<br>
(415) 863-9977<br>
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<a href="http://www.freedomarchives.org/" eudora="autourl">
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