Desperate people do desperate things.
They flee from their homes
because they are not safe there,
or because there are no longer
any homes there,
only enemies and rumors.
They break the law
because they are hungry
and their children are crying.
They sleep in the rain.
They risk their lives to reach lands
where they have heard
there are doctors and medicine.
They look for work.
The desperate ones wander empty roads
that go nowhere.
They are thirsty, and tired.
They have no money.
And wherever they die,
they die in a ditch.
Desperate people do desperate things.
Have you ever been that desperate?
No, I haven’t either.
—Tom Cowan
Tom Cowan is the author of several books on shamanism and Celtic spirituality. He lives in New York’s Hudson River Valley. He contributed this poem to ThisCantBeHappening!