Immigrants

It took them a long hard time
to get from elsewhere to here.
It could have been from anywhere

but you should ask them 
where it was and
what it was like there.

You should know; 
you should not negate it, diminish it,
or assume they want to forget.

There are differences
between Montevideo, Tegucigalpa,
Talinn, Lviv.

Do not assume
they are interchangeable.
Do not assume they forget

once they arrive. Forgetting 
is up to them, their children,
their grandchildren. 

Look at the state of
the country. You
haven’t forgotten;

your people 
didn’t forget. Haven’t yet.
Built a new world based on

their old world. Now
it’s their turn to do the same,
and all the whining

and gunfire
you can muster
won’t make it stop.