We don’t know
What they’ve come from
What they are fleeing
Or why they think our land a paradise
But they keep finding money and keep coming
And some are lost in waters cold as ice
Poor countries far away is all we know
We’ve heard the names read out on TV news
Somalia and Yemen Syria and Iraq
Places bombed to hell
We want to send them back
They haven’t read our poetry
About our green and pleasant land
But somebody somewhere
Has given them to understand
The UK is okay they say
Or words to that effect
Jump in a dinghy sail across
Come on you’ll get there yet
And we look on from this side
This side of Dover beach
And see invading hordes
Invading us
We’ve got problems of our own
We don’t need anymore
Send out the patrol boats
Time to shut the door
My forebears came from Ireland
And many the time before
When famine roamed the land
And millions died
And the government in Whitehall
They didn’t understand
The problem’s exaggerated
It’s only Ireland
We need an education
Get to know these folk
Put it on the news
It won’t leave us broke
Get a fuller picture
Open wide your heart
Send rescue not patrol boats
That would be a start
And colour is an issue
We can’t pretend it’s not
If these were white folk
Perishing at sea
But they’re coloured
And they’re foreign
And they have such funny names
I don’t know what they’re doing here
Disturbing quiet dreams
We need an education
We need to meet these folk
We need to hear their stories
Their memories their hopes
We’ve travelled all the world ourselves
On holidays abroad
Time to welcome refugees
Time that they were heard
Brian Fahy
27 November 2021
Erris Poetry 