THE REFUGEE RIVER...

Their faces emerge
from mountain mist and fog
         old and wrinkled faces
              young mothers' faces
                          babies' faces
faces of life and death
some with shortness of breath
all wearing trauma
in eyes and mouth
some as though crossing deserts
triumphing over drought
claiming men in masks
asking for money
         or taking blood
those resisting
         adding to the flood
                    of lost
             fathers
                  husbands
                          & sons
other soldiers
         threatening death
                  the women insist
                          can't resist
 (and still they come
          through mountain mist)
a travesty become tragedy
madmen at work
         at ethnic cleansing
                  all ethics vanished
at the point of a gun
                               or dirk...