Expelled

Emergency measures lay waste to our tribe,

Our shop selling postcards is closed, and they say

The carnival barker will not take a bribe,

The people here just want to wash us away.

We huddled together but it was no use,

As treaties mean nothing with those of our kind.

The judge said our ignorance is no excuse

But couldn’t explain how our hearts were designed.

Old stories that held us together are now

The very devices our futures betray.

We’ll measure out comfort, my mercury plough

Will melt in the furrows and none will convey.

Please keep me together, at least till I die

And can’t tell the seagulls apart from the sky.