This should be obvious ... a poem by Anne Selden Annab

Madonna and Child in a landscape by Giovanni Bellini

    This should be obvious

Newly born babies
are not interchangeable
nor are refugees.

Laws and policies
-and arguments-
shaped to dismiss
or misconstrue
to demonize
or diminish
and destroy
a Palestinian refugee's
inalienable individual
right to return
are wrong.... and cruel.

Laws and policies
-and arguments-
that legalize fragmenting families
pulverizing homes and
crippling communities-
poisoning wells
uprooting orchards
impoverishing even more parents
terrorizing even more children
inspiring bigotry, injustice
religious idiocy & militancy are
wrong... and cruel.

This should be obvious.

Newly born babies
are not interchangeable
nor are refugees.