Everything will be ok.

Our lives packed up, scaled down, crammed,
contained in lorry then in boat. Suffocating heat,
then paralysing cold.
I say “Everything will be ok”
With a reassuring smile, from mouth not eyes.
The worst is over. But I do not know.
If worse is yet to come. Penned in.
In lorry, then in boat, that smells of rotten flesh
not fish. That bobs upon the sea, on wave, on estuary.
That bobs to port that turns away.
They’re scared. So I say “Everything will be ok”
With a reassuring smile, from mouth not eyes.
I wipe away their salty tears,
their cries. From mouth. From eyes.
And then, penned in,
in lorry, boat and train, another place again
That won’t know what to do. With us. With them.
They’re scared, they say. They want to go back home.
So I say “everything will be ok.”
With a reassuring smile from mouth not eyes, because I do not know
If worse is yet to come.
I hide my salty tears, my fears, my lies.
From mouth. From eyes.
Our lives contained, in trains, on platforms where it rains,
Exposed, on view, like animals in a Zoo.
We wait. We queue. Accused. In news.
We’re hungry, they say. We want a place to stay.
So I say “Everything will be ok”.
With a reassuring smile from mouth not eyes, because
I do not know if worse is yet to come. So tired. So now I cannot hide,
no matter how I try, these lies, the tears, my fears.
From mouth. From eyes.