World Travellers

They are legion, and they are as unalike
to one another as their heritage, language
religion, customs and values, colour of
their skin and country of origin. They
have, on the other hand, much in common 
in sharing a drive born of human necessity 
and the inheritance of survival's instincts 
to believe a better life awaits them away 
from the oppression, racism, sectarianism 
and bloody conflict that rules the misery 
of their lives. And so, in their desperation
they resolve to sacrifice the present for the
future, seeking out opportunities however 
fearful, risking life and limb to reach the 
imagined haven of long dreamed-of lands 
of opportunity where freedom resides and 
all becomes possible. Their dreams thrive 
on narratives told and retold of success
realized by others of their tribe and theirs 
can be too if they simply set out to achieve 
their aspiration. Little do they know or wish 
to know the numbers of their peers who 
escape privation and threat to find themselves 
kept as slaves eking out faint hope on dreams 
that refuse to fade. They and countless other 
refugees clogging varied escape routes and 
contracting with smugglers have little idea 
they may be packed into seagoing cargo 
holds in locked steel carriers loaded onto 
transport trucks to be driven to remote 
locations delivered to the custody of slavers 
or quite simply become victims of casual 
forgetfulness whose bodies will be discovered
their souls departed in an agony of suffering 
far outdistancing their original plight, while
the world wrings its hands in ineffectual
despair, knowing their plight will be repeated.