Disasters, Delights and Other Detours - 48. Asylum Seeker's Elegy

I'll put a   here for the fine work you did in taking us on this horrific journey. This man's plight should not have to happen, but it has become a cold,callous, and contained world. You pulled no punches here, and that is what makes this both worthy and powerful.  

Thank you for sharing your talents. It is a cruel unjust place we live in ...

14 minutes ago, Headstall said:

I'll put a   here for the fine work you did in taking us on this horrific journey. This man's plight should not have to happen, but it has become a cold,callous, and contained world. You pulled no punches here, and that is what makes this both worthy and powerful.  

Thanks for reading this, Gary. This is a distillation of current stories from the border, as you can guess. Good Samaritans are getting prosecuted and threatened with jail. They're made examples of to keep the rest of us quiet. In the meantime, the poor people fleeing violence and crime perish. My heart hurts over it.

5 minutes ago, Valkyrie said:

Wow... this is quite a powerful piece.  It brought tears to my eyes.  This is an apt modern take on the Good Samaritan, and one I can picture playing out all too clearly, I'm afraid.  Too bad the endings aren't the same, but that's our current reality, sadly.  Well done, as always.    

This comes as an amalgam of stories from the border. And yes, Good Samaritans are being threatened and being made into examples to keep everyone else in line. Thank you for taking to time to read this very difficult poem.

2 minutes ago, dughlas said:

Thank you for sharing your talents. It is a cruel unjust place we live in ...

Thank you very much for reading this. The recent story of a jury refusing to convict a Good Samaritan recently was heartening in an otherwise bleak tide of news.

Escape, capture, and prosecution. I had to read it twice, to be sure. 

Very strong piece, and a very striking commentary on where we are in America today. Good Samaritans must choose their paths wisely these days, or risk being labeled an enemy for their kindness. It's not just a shame, it's criminal.

Just now, Geron Kees said:

Escape, capture, and prosecution. I had to read it twice, to be sure. 

Very strong piece, and a very striking commentary on where we are in America today. Good Samaritans must choose their paths wisely these days, or risk being labeled an enemy for their kindness. It's not just a shame, it's criminal.

Thank you very much for reading through this poem. I've read enough in the news to leave me very shaken and sad. And angry, too.

40 minutes ago, Parker Owens said:

I've read enough in the news to leave me very shaken and sad

On this side of the pond, mostly we only see the big picture, not how it affects individuals. And certainly not the story of the trucker. However you feel about immigration, common decency and kindness towards those individuals should be expected. Those people running what have been described as 'concentration camps' in the US should be the ones punished, not a man doing what is right. 

Thank you for this. A sobering, shameful read. What chance the trucker gets freed on appeal, I wonder?

1 hour ago, Headstall said:

that is what makes this both worthy and powerful.

An excellent description, Gary. Worthy, indeed.

3 hours ago, northie said:

On this side of the pond, mostly we only see the big picture, not how it affects individuals. And certainly not the story of the trucker. However you feel about immigration, common decency and kindness towards those individuals should be expected. Those people running what have been described as 'concentration camps' in the US should be the ones punished, not a man doing what is right. 

Thank you for this. A sobering, shameful read. What chance the trucker gets freed on appeal, I wonder?

This a very dark time in our history, I think. I was encouraged to see that a jury refused to convict a Samaritan last month. Others haven’t been as lucky. 

8 hours ago, Geron Kees said:

here we are in America toda

Not only in America *hangs head in shame*

You showed us, let us feel, the very nature of the poetic form 'elegy'.

6 hours ago, aditus said:

You showed us, let us feel, the very nature of the poetic form 'elegy'.

Thank you for reading this difficult poem. The nameless ones I will never know still have stories that bring me grief. 

Thanks for taking the Poetry Prompt challenge, Parker. You've interpreted the theme of 'Remember' in a great way; that we all need to remember what is happening at the Southern border in the name of the American people. I can imagine just the scene you paint, with the trucker being made example of to warn others away from compassion, something alien to the current Kremlin-installed regime in Washington.

As for technical matters, your lines are all nicely consistent, and your rhymes flow by just barely above the level of noticing -- the way it should be If I can just mention one little, tinny-tiny, tiny-tinny, itseeebitsssee thing... I don't think "fuel" and "fool" make for a rhyme. My argument is that whereas you use the words as single-beat sounds, they both start with the same consonant but end in differing vowel sounds, because if they did not, then fuel and fool would be perfect homonyms. Perhaps if you rework the lines to force a two-beat reading, you could say "few-ull" and "fo-ull" rhyme, but that veers dangerously close to being contrived, imo.  

Again, thanks for playing along and writing a great poem!  

52 minutes ago, AC Benus said:

If I can just mention one little, tinny-tiny, tiny-tinny, itseeebitsssee thing... I don't think "fuel" and "fool" make for a rhyme.

You have an excellent point. I will have to reconsider that as I knead bread... thanks very much for your comments and thoughts. I’m enormously grateful you took time with this one. 

15 hours ago, aditus said:

Not only in America *hangs head in shame*

I know. These things are cyclic, however, and we can hold out some small hope that we can rebound into something better shortly. Nothing like getting your face down into the muck to get a really good look at the dirt that's there.

On 7/9/2019 at 2:05 PM, AC Benus said:

I don't think "fuel" and "fool" make for a rhyme

@AC Benus  I think you have a good point about this. This possible change might improve things. What do you think?

The final sorry thread must now unspool,

for he who hoped in peace to bide

neglected in his cell soon died,

by rank injustice played the fool.

A striking and powerful piece, Parker, on a sad state of affairs. 

Well done. 

5 hours ago, Defiance19 said:

A striking and powerful piece, Parker, on a sad state of affairs. 

Well done. 

You’re very kind to comment on my small effort to write about this very difficult subject. I know many people disagree with me, but I fear something is far wrong with what is happening.