INVASIONS
 
They come in swarms
In swarms are coming
Hollow eyes and ragged limbs
Bloated babes and toothless women
Dry and haggard denizens
 
Trembling we, with wide-eyed worry
Tremblingly, we see them come
Bringing filth, disease and squalor
Bringing feeble outstretched palms
To our apple trees and parlours
 
Hail the fence
The barbs all hail
Keep us safe and pure and clean
Separate us, immunize us
Free from evil let us reign
 
Turning inwards all around us
All around us turning in
Till we halt the mad invasion
Halt the sound of all the pleading
Of our world-wide hungry kin
 
Death to migrants. Death to welcome.
Death to justice. Death to love.
Save our happy laughing children
Happy healthy blind-eyed children
From invasions from above

Copyright © 1965  Joy Kogawa.  All rights reserved.