To celebrate the launch of the Human Rights Law Review in March 2015, the Human Rights Collegium asked current QMUL law students to submit poems on the theme of “Human Rights’. Here is one of the the four winning poems:
This fire” by Krysta Amy Yan
I have this fire in me.
For country, for faith, for peace.
But they struck me down.
They sought my heat with their missiles.
And they brought me to the ground.
This fire was not my fire,
My fire burns in me.
I have this fire in me.
For families, for safety, for liberty.
But they snatched me away.
They seized my soul from the wreck of my F-16.
And their games I was made to play.
This fire was not my fire,
My fire burns in me.
I have this fire in me.
Not for war, not for terror, not for barbarity.
But they make me walk to my death cage.
Their eyes of evil are all I see
And they kneel the torch to the ground which leads to me.
This fire was not my fire,
My fire burns in me.
Save my fire.
Save country, faith and peace.
Save my soul.
Save families, safety, liberty.
Save my spirit.
Though I have not died without it.
This fire was not my fire—
My death without dignity.
But my fire is your fire—
It burns in you and me.
ΚΡΥΣΤΑΛΛΕΝΙΑ
