The Dying Refugee

He remembers when the Government soldiers to his village came Shot to death his wife and children and put their hut to flame Shot to death other villagers and burned down their houses as well Since that night life for him has been an earthly hell. Three years in a refugee camp waiting for a passport and visa for another Land And his joy at receiving such not hard to understand Australia was waiting a new life to begin After heartbreak and sorrow for him in life a win. In his twenty ninth year and just a year in Australia and time running out On one who had lived through tragedy, war and famine and drought With stomach cancer the doctor has given a month for to live To this poor luckless man without sins to forgive. In the pre famine and pre war days with his young children and wife He looked forward to a happy and a wonderful life But for everyone not everything in life goes to plan And things did go all wrong for the poor displaced man. In his dream he hears the lion roar in the faint moonlight And the hyena scream in the African night And in the cool of the morning he see his children play In the sand by his hut before the heat of day. Once a happy family man who had many a friend Here is not where he would wish his life for to end Far south of where the hunting eagles do fly Above the brown savanna in the African sky.