Article 13

(Universal Declaration of Human Rights | United Nations)

Here for a short while,
Seeking rest, food, shelter
From unfavorable winds and storms,
They leave traces of themselves in the fields.
Feathers, like discarded and worn out boots,
Are stuck in the mud and hidden under leaves,
Lost in the scramble
To stay alive another day.
The body that wore them, continuing
On the long journey toward finding real refuge,
A place where a familiar language is spoken
And the food eaten tastes like home.

II

Perched field-side
With binoculars and scope.
I search for what is invisible to my eye
Like an innocent bystander.
I watch as a peregrine falcon
Searches relentlessly for its next meal
And as the fields get sprayed by
Monster farm machinery.
The transiting sandpipers
Forage together, take flight in fear, then land
Over and over again
Expending their stores of energy.
I listen to their cries
And bear witness to their passage,
Recording their identities
So all may know they were here.

III

The planes take off and land
Bringing people here
Who are treated as chaff in an inhumane wind.
I am left to read news accounts
Like it is all happening to someone else
In a separate country
In a foreign land.