Poetry: Terrorising or Terrorised by Doryn Herbst

Terrorising or Terrorised

The Terrorised
land on western shores by night
in boats not built to cross the oceans,
so risk their livers to attain their dreams
or will it just be a continuation of their
nightmares.

Terror, Illegal Aliens and Invaders,
the Invaded call them,
come to grab what they do not deserve.

But guilt does not lie in one corner,
does not arrange itself in one direction
or rest alone with either the
Invaders nor the Invaded.

Some take a cut of money that changes hands
behind closed doors. Use the cash, in turn, to flee
themselves from hunger, thirst and civil war
sustained by weapons sold by the very people
living on the shores to which they flee.

The Invaded feel a violation but like
the cheap goods which the Invaders process
and pack at a low cost in the New Homelands
to which they come.


Bio: Doryn Herbst, formerly a scientist in the water industry, Wales, now lives in Germany and is a deputy local councillor. Her writing considers the natural world but also themes which address social issues. She is putting together a pamphlet-sized series about violence in its many facets. Doryn has poetry in Fahmidan Journal, CERASUS Magazine, Sledgehammer Literary Journal and more, plus work forthcoming in Fenland Poetry Journal, Re-side Zine and The Dawntreader. She is a reviewer at Consilience science poetry journal.