They came searching for the dream
The one you sold
of freedom, prosperity and a life unchecked
by prejudice and corruption.
You gave them the worst of your reality.

They came like your country’s founders had
Across perilous waters
on wooden vessels, praying and hoping for a better life.
You feared that they would do to you,
what you did to the first peoples of the land.

They came with hands outstretched
Asking for compassion
You denied their humanity
Denigrated them as illegals
All the while ignoring your own illegal actions.

Locking them up and throwing away the key
Reducing them to numbers just as the Nazis did.
Providing a sick man with lifesaving medical care
threatened your nation’s sovereignty.
Border security become more important
than mercy for a child driven to self-immolation.

You could not fathom why they came,
or you did not care to.
Yet you slowly and surely created for them
something worse than what they were fleeing.

Would it have been any different
if their skin was the same colour as yours?