Refugees in Focus

​Rarely does anything astonish me, but a reader recently brought to my attention the poetry of Brian Bilston. I set out to contact him to seek permission to post one of his poems "Refugee" on the Readers Write page. That's when I discovered the poet is a mysterious figure, not named Brian Bilston, whose true identity remains unknown. Hence, getting in touch proved difficult so I print it here as part of my own opinion piece. If he stumbles across it, I hope he'll get in touch.

"Refugee" is meant to be read both from the top line to the bottom and from the bottom line to the top. The message reading up is the perfect antidote to the message reading down. Read it first in the conventional direction. 

Refugee
​By Brian Bilston

​They have no need of our help
So do not tell me
These haggard faces could belong to you or I
Should life have dealt a different hand
We need to see them for who they really are
Chancers and scroungers
Layabouts and loungers
With bombs up their sleeves
Cut-throats and thieves
They are not
Welcome here
We should make them
Go back to where they came from
They cannot
Share our food
Share our homes
Share our countries
Instead let us 
Build a wall to keep them out 
It is not okay to say
These are people just like us
A place should only belong to those who    were born there
Do not be so stupid to think that
The world can be looked at another way