Refugees
By Margaret Van Every
All it took were two: the primordial man
and woman were the first to be expelled.
The soil, the orchard, the pile of leaves
on which they dreamed, the beasts that
they had named—the sum of the familiar
they thought was theirs.
A sword at the back corrected them.
They did as countless refugees to come:
no questions asked, they placed one foot
before the other until they crossed a line.
Pained witnesses of forced flight—
whatever the flame that drives them out—
we weep for the home land lost.
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