(Chilean, Afghani, Ukrainian) Refugee

by Sylvia Maultash Warsh


In a land shrill with
fever sometimes
running is the only survival,
a long-distance poem on the
state of the State when
words are forbidden.
Sometimes running takes your
breath away with the beauty of
the untried, the exotic
treachery of hope until
that moment you remember
where you came from:
the familiar stones of that
ancient street your child’s
feet knew, the friends
whose voices you still
dream about in a tongue
you can understand.
You’ll never see those faces again,
some dead, some running like
you to survive the fever of a place that sets
fire to its past and
surrounds the ashes with
wire. But in a land
laid out in graves sometimes
running is the only survival.


* * * * *

Sylvia Maultash Warsh was born in Germany to Holocaust survivors and came to Canada as a child. Her poems have appeared in journals and anthologies. She is the author of the Dr. Rebecca Temple novels, the second of which won an Edgar award. Her fourth book, The Queen of Unforgetting, was chosen by Project Bookmark Canada for a plaque installation. She has had a novella as well as numerous short stories published, some of which have been shortlisted for awards. She lives in Toronto and teaches writing to seniors.