And They Wait - Spoem

A normal day, a normal life

Cheerful kids, charming wife

The man leaves for work with a smile on his face

Jumps in the car and joins the race

Another day another dollar, TGIF fella

Early finish, home by four, business lunch then back through the door

His home, his castle, his kids, his wife,

This man’s island

This man’s life.

And then the bomb drops.

Not a proverbial,

not a simile or metaphor

but a high explosive that tears through the door

and in the name of nameless men

at the command of those and them

the normal day, the normal life

the cheerful kids, the charming wife

all cease to be.

The man’s smile still rigid in place

a mask for his face so his kids don’t lose cheer

and his wife doesn’t lose heart but

their lives are destroyed, lost family and friends

what can he do?

This is another man’s fight, another man’s battle

But this man’s family

So he waits at the office for days on end

Fills out forms, ticks boxes, puts crosses

Signs here, signs there

Cross-references, checks, pays again

And again, and again

All his money to faceless men

His trust in the hands of the system

And he waits

And he waits

And

He

Waits.

For nothing… nothing happens, the faceless men vanish

The office dismantled, the system wipes its hands, dries its eyes

Gives its promises, tells its lies

As death falls from the skies

And in that time

His wife starves

and

Dies.

He takes the kids; a boy, a girl

Emaciated, starved

Out into the world to forge their own path

No-one will help them now

So he sells all he has left

Puts a pack on his back

That smile on his face

goes down to the docks

And again the man waits.

And eventually… finally… they find a place.

The bombs still fall behind them as they

Ride the waves to freedom

on an old man’s clapped-out, rusty, cramped and holey

Ark…

‘It’s an ark daddy’

And the man tells stories to his kids

As they ride the waves to freedom

Eating just enough to keep them

‘until the promised land my darlings

Just you wait and see’

For days and nights, nights and days they give themselves over

And drift away

The man shields his kids from others tempers

As the grown-ups around them reach their ends

And turn on friends

So he wraps them in a cocoon of stories and tales

‘mummy is an angel now, watching us, seeing us safe

Can you feel her touch, see her face, be strong my

Darlings she says’

Then someone cries ‘land’

And the children believe.

So close they could touch it

So close they could taste it

So close they can smell it

So close

And then the boat comes.

Masked men, angry words in a strange tongue

Unintelligible but the meaning clear

Guns on display and palpable fear

Go back to where you came from

You’re not welcome here

But of course they can’t, they have nowhere left to go.

So the half-starved crowd of men, women

Boys and girls are herded like cattle

Branded, listed, prodded and poked

Some of them still but many provoked

And eventually, they are given a number

Left on an island, shut behind a gate, told to be good and to wait.

And they wait… and they wait… and they wait.

The girl stopped talking weeks ago

Her eyes vacant and lost

The man struggles each day to find his smile

As he waits in line with the rest

For word that never comes

And the boy… the boy waits and waits 

and he waits

Staring at the solemn gates, 

the high fence

Their island prison 

and he prays

‘mummy, I’m sorry, was I bad?’

Never heard of a Spoem before? Not many have... Spoetry is a way of finally making use of your spam emails... spam poems (or spoems) are usually formed from the subject lines of spam emails... it's surprisingly challenging and also very good fun... this spoem is inspired by a spam email I received that looked very dodgy but the title 'And They Wait' really stuck in my head... then I saw an SBS show on immigration and 'boat people' - it amazes me that some folk seem to regard refugees as somehow less than human... if they risk the journey... just imagine what they are running from!