Listening to this weekend’s Sunday Edition show on CBC radio, I heard the host, Michael Enright interview Brian Bilston, the “Bansky of poetry”.
One of Bilston’s best known poems in ‘Refugees’, in which he uses an unusual literary device, one in which the poem can either be read front to back, as is usual, or from back to front. It is a clever way to offer up, visualize, different perspectives, without changing the words.
————————–
Refugees (by Brian Bilston)
They have no need of our help
So do not tell me
These haggard faces could belong to you or me
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 are born there
Do not be so stupid to think that
The world can be looked at another way
(Now read from bottom to top)
—————————–
It’s my country’s national election, tomorrow. Not surprisingly there have been quite a few speeches the last few weeks in which the issues-at-hand, i.e., people’s differences, conflicts, are frequently painted in black and white terms. Refugees is a colourful reminder that things aren’t always what they seem; a different perspective can change everything.
Speak Your Mind