First Poem For North Korean Escapees

The darkness that you saw,

The humiliation of the meek,

The breaking of the strong,

Risen cruelty crushing the weak,

Crushing the spirit of humanity,

Now, the light shed by your smile

Conquers it.

A smile conveys

As much as the books

Full of the fury and the pomp

Of history and time,

But nothing compares with the look

Of quiet determination

Transmitted in a smile.

We are the lucky few who tread

Lightly on the ground,

Not held down and filled with dread

But floating and unbound,

Able to untie the knots that hold

The innocent and humble,

Because, we refuse to do as told

And deep inside, we fly, we fly.

And I wait, without

Expectation, for the morning light

To show the promise of distant hills.

I lift my aching back from the toil,

Shivering and shaken with chills

Raking the frozen ground with my clawed hands.