Poem by Paul Newton

Who will help me?
Who’ll let me stay?
Who’ll show compassion?
Not turn me away.
Who will help me change my life,
Help me keep my children; my wife?

Will you just turn me away?
Stay tight lipped,
With nothing to say?
Do you know from what I flee?
If you send me back,
What I will be?

Does the town,
In which you dwell’
Resemble a scene,
A scene from hell?
Bodies strewn in rubbled brick,
Please let me stay,
Don’t be a prick.

Do rockets reign down,
Night and day?
Sirens wailing,
N’er fading away?
Do your children,
Sleep sound in their bed,
Safe in the knowledge,
That you’re not dead?

And so I ask,
One thing of thee,
To show compassion,
To please help me;
To keep my family,
Safe and secure,
Death and destruction,
No more to endure.