A Poison Tree Bears Poison Fruit

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Millions of people worldwide are stateless, a condition which bars them from basic human rights such as education, healthcare, and having a job. This poem aims to raise awareness about statelessness and it's structure is modeled after William Blake's "The Chimney Sweeper"

I ripened in the great land of opportunity,

Planted within bleak walls of a detention facility

My singular desire "Home! Home! Home! Home!"

I am a species subordinate to yours, yet we share a genome

There's a little fig, which shrivelled when it

Was rejected by your icy eyes, "bastardly, hybrid, counterfeit"

"O little fig! turning of seasons, pacing of clock hands.

You know time grants refuge in these lands.

And so it passed & this Eve,

I ponder my predestined fate and grieve!

I once dreamt thousands of poisoned fruits,

Were all shackled to their desiccated earthly roots;

And by came a kind soul wielding a gleaming knife,

And he sliced our stems & awakened us to life;

Then down an emerald plain, liberated, we fell.

And cleanse of poison in crystal water, free from this living hell.

But I re-awaken; I confront my sin

Mother a poison tree and I the eternal poison fruit, within.

Never with an identity or a home, jus sanguinis or jus soli,

So I bear poison fruit in a wretched land, as you won’t hear my plea.