As The World Burns – A Reaction To The Refugee Crisis & Muslim Ban
By Shalini Dua
Today, Americans are facing a reality that we never thought would happen on our shores. A desecration of American values by our own president. A dictatorship of oppression against people’s basic human rights. The oligarchy taking aim from every angle, against women, the LGBT community, refugees, Muslims, Mexicans. We must stand up and resist the tyranny and reclaim and reinforce the values that America was founded upon.
We sat inside and sipped our tea
As the world burned
Miles away
Distanced by the sea
And the neighbors came
And said, see the world it burns
And together we sipped tea
Disengaged
As our world continued to turn
More tea we poured and sipped and spoke
As the images of families and spirits broke
And a few voices shouted, solitary and strong
See the world it burns, where has your humanity gone
And so we gave a dollar
As we sipped our tea
And changed the channel
Apathetic, desensitized
After all, it was not happening to me
And we drank our comfort
Complacent because we were not bad
Silent
And confident our world
Would always remain intact
Then our neighbor’s houses burned
So nervously we brewed more leaves
Offered them warm liquid comfort
And other empty pointless things
So close to home, still we could not feel
And as we sat there sipping
Oblivious to it all
We began to feel the heat
Creeping closer by the second
Licking the edges of our world
And the flames they rose
As we sipped our tea
And ate away at everything
Our home and our complacency
So we sat outside and sipped stranger’s tea
Our world disappeared
Our home gone
And suddenly
All that was left
Were miles and seas