Dr. Roopali’s poem, on a socio-economic issue, sharpens the North-South divide. An exclusive for Different Truths.
Ask and thou shalt receive, they said and turned me away at the door the Holy Book had lied I now look for morsels on the floor. Bring me your hungry and your poor She held out the lamp of liberty. But the immigration officer laughed and said he really had no such memory. He stamped a NO on my passport and turned me away saying “No More!” Every night huddled and hungry I had dreamt of a fairy land and now the place of milk and honey is only a castle of sand. The Congressman from Florida screamed “These wretched refugees will snatch our bread We just cannot let them in.” The billionaire guests at his campaign sipped champagne and nodded their heads. as they merrily nibbled black caviar on paper thin slices of bread.
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Dr. Roopali Sircar Gaur is a poet, travel writer, and social justice activist. A former professor of English Literature at Delhi University, and a creative writing professor at IGNOU, she is a widely published academic and creative writer. Her book Twice Colonised: Women in African Literature, is a seminal text on women’s socio-political empowerment. In 2020-21, she co-edited two poetry anthologies – In All the Spaces: Diverse Voices in Global Women’s Poetry, and Earth Fire Water Wind.
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An eloquent and moving condemnation of ‘the west’…. but some of us do really care