Il Walad, poem published by Douglas Alexander Holiday

(for the children of the Sudan and Somalia)

Walking,
here you come
walking
walking in groups of
ten,
a hundred,
thousands,
ten thousand
some of you
are walking on
two legs, no thicker than a man’s finger
or one leg supported by branches
others are carried
or ride piggybacked
here you come
as young as eight
as old as twenty-something
with two outstretched hands
or single-handed, the other one left behind in a civil war
you are coming
finding no durra or mukheit on
this far trek
trying to flee from
the sharia
the Haddendawa
the Taposa
this Muslim-Christian war
and you don’t understand
why
Sadiq al-Madi or Omar Hassan El-Bashir
won’t feed you
clothe you
shelter you and
why
you must pick up arms
at eight
you are Dinka
you are Nuer
traveling through
the deserts
sifting through
dust and sand
for a grain of corn
or something to keep many of
you alive
for one more day
as you make this journey
through Abyei, el Meiram, Bahr El Ghazel(near Raga)
can you try to cross
the upper Nile, without drowning
the White Nile
or the Akobo River
coming through Equatoria, Muglad, Rumraadt,
meeting others in
Khartoum
Juba
Wau
Aweil
Fungido and Itang in Ethiopia
Malakal
Yirol
you will meet many others
coming from
Pinyudo, in Ethiopia
and the chain
continues to be linked
through Kongor and Ponchala, Akon, Babanusa,
Kosti(on the White Nile), Ler,
Safaha, Lokichokio, Yei, Narus,
Pibor, Kapoeta, Abu Hamed, Dongola, Asmara, Shendi,
Wad Medani, El Obeid, El Fasher, Kafia Kingi, Kodok,
Jebelein, Darfur, Kordofan, Torit, Ngangala, Bor,
Magwe, Atbara, Wadi Halfa,
Port Sudan, Omdurman
and you are caught in the
crossfire
between the Arab north
and the black south
but you
keep
walking
hoping to find
Bishop Taban Paride
who has also
walked
forty-five miles or more
and don’t concern
yourselves that
the world is famine-fatigued
having seen too many of your skeletal bodies
their greedy eyes
gazing blankly at your
black bones, because you have no skin
because what food is available
is stolen
and this government
has sided with the Sudanese government
so no relief is
coming,
like Leland and the fourteen others
and you must forgive the
younger ones who are helping the armies
who are shooting you
or gassing you
or raiding
the refugee camps
while you sleep
or pray
or prepare your souls for a good death
many of you
are too weak
to swat flies
or stand
or eat, with your bellies protruding not
from being full but
empty
and you must all
walk
walk now
to Baidoa
and Mogadishu
in Somalia
food is
coming
they will
feed you there
for awhile
you can get
something to eat
if you can just
walk
there