In Search For A Promised Land Poem by Elizabeth Padillo Olesen

Four dark years without sight of dawn
They march out of daily gloom
from bombs, terror and destruction,
they have to see life that should bloom.

They march through thorns and thistles
over ice, fire and storms; they push
through their limits, hiding and limping,
soaked with sweat; in thirst and in hunger.

Towards Europe, they march forward
over closed borders and barbed wires;
They could not stop their search
for their Promised Land on earth.

To their eyes Europe becomes a new heaven
where the powerful do not destroy
their own people; where freedom of
speech and religion does not torture
and kill lives of people.
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Syrian refugees, September 17,2015