Refugee

I sit in terror

listening to shells

that drop from the sky

and shatter the earth.

I see the world

I once loved

broken and dead,

killed by the soldiers.

I cannot stay here

any longer.

I have to leave.

But how can I leave

my country,

my home?

I cannot leave.

I mustn’t leave.

Every day

the fighting gets closer.

I hear missiles

and tanks

and screams

and guns.

I see people I know

lying dead on the streets

in pools of blood,

with bulletholes in their chests.

I stay in hiding

in order to stay alive,

but hundreds of others

have been murdered.

For what?

Why do the shells

fall from the sky

turning once-loved

homes into nothing more

than rubble?

Why must I hide

from the soldiers each day,

waiting for safety

I fear never will come?

I have given up hope

that this ever will end.

I know I must leave,

but I cannot leave

my country,

my home.