border kids
Some border kids are pretty aggressive and don’t like being photographed.
border kids
eight years from birth
parents don’t care
no place for vacation
tourists beware
iraq/turkey border
aggressive kids harass
they beg you for money
they’re a pain in the ass
no business
no pleasure
it’s no place
for leisure
why go to school
when bullies abound?
where are the parents?
no where to be found!
an audience watches
and they get in your way
if don’t give them money
they might make you stay
no business
no pleasure
it’s no place
for leisure
no opportunities
nor fortune or fame
wild sassy kids
that no one can time
each day the patrols
shoo them off, hopelessly
they don’t heed them at all
they go on woefully
no business
no pleasure
it’s no place
for leisure
Posted for:
border
Also posted on:
B is for Beginning interview with Berowne
Picture Credit:   Ilya Varlamov
For more about Border Kids, see @roniweiss‘s youtube Roni On Location documentary on his adventures hitchhiking into Iraq from Turkey
Posted on January 22, 2012, in ABC wednesday, D’verse Poets Pub, Poetry and tagged border, border kids, border verse, dversepoets, Ilya Varlamov, iraq, iraq-turkish border, iraqi border, roni on location, roni weiss, turkey, turkish bordker, youtube. Bookmark the permalink. 17 Comments.
Verification wastes my time, and often doesn't work. I am going to stop commenting on pages that require verification one of these days.
ZONGRIK 
so sad when the parents give up on them…but i think the problem is that they have enough problems themselves and just can’t give the stability these kids would need…will check out the link…
Parents nowhere to be found by the time they’re 8… that’s so sad… heart-wrenching, really. The repitition is very effective, almost taunting. Great piece!
There is no doubt that the world is now a much, much more brutal and unkind place to be. Humans, including children have become, throw away, disposable objects and these kids caught up in the Middle east fighting are all the more tragic in their fight to survive.
So sadly true. To meet a child from a country like this is, is so sad. It is a cruel way for a child to grow up. The atrocities they have seen at such a young age… and the physical wounds of war are a constant reminder for them too.
Thanks for presenting their existence with words that tear the soul.
Peace,
Siggi in Downeast Maine
Wonder if you can set it to music. The chorus is especially entrancing.
good idea!
very sad, and very much in more places than most people realize i think, mexico, here in the u.s., most everywhere; thank you for highlighting this…
great write….these are the kids i love and work with…the forgotten…the dangerously close to the edge…great awareness piece…and real…this is well beyond other countries and alive and well here in the states…
parenting, childhood ahhh! 😦
At least the kids in Manila and Tijuana will give you gum for a penny=) Thanks for the visual…
Very lyrical- like the repeating chorus. This has charm- especially when accompanied by the picture at the beginning
YOu so catch the feel of helplessness bordering on rage, It chills me. I wish I were more in touch wiht answers.
that was so sad and at the same time highlights the countless problems going on with kids these days.
This is an emotional read that strikes me deep! It makes me think of this song…
I love your honest writes!
~L
What tough lives they live!
ROG, ABC Wednesday team
that’s really really sad…I feel bad for them….late visit from ABC W!
 Taking deep breaths in and out†saying to myself “remember to savor this†remember this view from the veil†hold on to these moments.