A Refugee Child

Most of the Afghan refugees who fled the war in Afghanistan lived in refugee camps near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. The situation inside the refugee camps was dire, and thousands of refugee children were facing life-threatening conditions.This poem is dedicated to those children and any refugee children around the world.

I am a refugee child
I am a flower that has been cut from the stem

I am a refugee child
I am a child who is caught up in the middle of a frightful war

When the night is covering the vile world with its dark coat
When I am resting on the muddy ground next to an unlocked door
I feel myself again
I feel like a child that could smile in peace
That could go to an enchanted dream

In daylight when I hear the roar of the crowd
When I feel the sun's warmth on my skin
When I listen to hungry babies sad cry for help
When an injured man moans in pain
When I look around the valley of abandoned dreams
Full of anguish and astounding poverty
As we are all cramped in a cell of depression
With no hope and no fresh air to breath
My soul becomes cold
My heart gets lost in despair so deep

But when the nights falls softly upon us
I sense the essence of hope; that rushes joyfully in me
Suddenly I feel like a child 
A child with a desire to be free

Shahla Latifi
09-01-2016
Photo- «Faces of Afghanistan», Peshawar, Pakistan- Afghan refugee by Steve McCurry