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C H A N T A L M E Z A
I APPLAUD YOU
I applaud you
You who toil in the madhouse of the world,
I see your shadows
Exposed to the viral flames
You, who were always invisible
Silently killed by unseen forces
I applaud you
I am not you
I applaud you all the same
It is you, on the margins,
Sustaining this broken time
Refugee, migrant. Your story
Always the same,
So, I applaud you, mothers and daughters
Sons of the earth, who feed us
Even as your suffering continues,
You're starvation but another day
I applaud you,
Now from my balcony of refuges
we all now seek refuge too
In this locked down asylum,
where distance is now our shield
But you now see us for what we are
Refugees without moving
Locked down, safe, depending on you
So, I applaud you, with a silent chorus
Carried across the pure infectious air,
Breathe don't breathe
And I know you don't ask
To be celebrated like others,
Simply to be recognized
not a hero in our midst
But you, the disposable, the forgotten,
the wretched of history
What you contribute, remains a mystery
Yet in that mystery, the basic truth of life
I applaud you
Brad Evans, 2020
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