Written by Jane Law
The sky is leaden
Without the freckle of a single star in sight
The one ray of sunshine turns its back
Their lies are too many footsteps to be count
Across the border
Where life is better
Or at least, empty promises
Sealed with pretty kisses on counterfeit tickets
Your existence squeezed with 300 other men
Your back etched with bleeding rashes
Of the blood suckers breathing under hardwood floors
Disconnected from cut telephone lines and time
Water rusts hiding in the drooping pipelines
The air tastes like sewage
No blankets, no privacy
No privacy, no privacy
Bitter tears
A baby’s first word
Crawl out to their mom
Reaching like vines charting to the other side of the block
On her knees
Mother begs
Coughing sickness
Still, she goes untreated
Father is beaten
Bruised and black
He used to believe in God
But not with his hands tied and stomach fed with kicks
Sister’s eyes saw the last light
Her purple lips trembled
As it touched an ice tray
Her voice was merely a cold-distant whisper
Brother is dirty
He wails, he’s upset
He feels his grip loosening
Day by day in this hole hounded by hounds
Welcome home!
How hungry have you been?
How cold is it?
How have we become like this?
A home is a home
Until the barbed wires come in
Suffocating the life out from their eyes
Its thorns prickled the one thing they prayed-
Freedom.
Art by Syarifah Nadhirah
Annotation:
Migran Juga Manusia, which means ‘Migrants are also Humans’ in Malay- the national language of Malaysia- is a campaign created in response to the cruel inequalities faced by migrants and refugees in Malaysia. This poem is based on this tweet, which shed light on how they are living under inhumane conditions in detention camps. I question, whether as a society, how can we turn our backs and look the other way when injustice is happening right in front of our eyes. Xenophobia is very prevalent in Malaysia. A lot of Malaysians are saying that migrants and refugees need to go back to ‘where they came from’ but they don’t understand that most of them have nowhere else to go. No one chose to be homeless, no one chose to run away from their country if it’s safe in the first place and most importantly, no one should be labelled ‘illegal’. Where is our humanity? Where is our compassion? We can do better. We SHOULD do better.
About the Author
Jane Law is a journalism student in Malaysia who is passionate about all things writing, activism, films, and cats. A strong believer in female and youth empowerment, she aspires to be an inspiring change to those around her and she hopes to make a small difference to the world through her writing- be it encouraging the stifled voices to speak up against the wrongs in society or sparking democratic
conversations in the public. If she is not watching Gone Girl
for the fifth time in the row or slurping ramen noodles at the
corner of her room, you can find her reading, painting or
jamming to Hozier and Lorde tunes while bragging how she
have managed to fail in Math even though she’s a certified
Asian.
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