Returning

Coming back I wonder where
Home is. I have official stamps
From thieves to say Enter, Stay.
I want to ask Aunty Sue, how do I
Apply for a passport, from you?

We came from China, from Russia, Ukraine,
Poland, Germany, Czech; from Vietnam,
Kosovo, South Sudan, Afghanistan, Iraq.
We are but the latest squatters,
The latest refugees, in an unbroken line.

My dyedushka, Misha, idealist; refugee.
People in the streets protesting inhuman conditions.
It's easy to blame us for uprisings, we're different.
Retaliate. Persecute. Target the Jews.
His father injured in a pogrom,
Came home one day when Misha was 13,
bleeding from the head.
As soon as he is old enough, he leaves.
Away from camps and the burning stetl,
Away from hatred and hunger.
His parents stayed. Stayed and died.
Doba of hunger in 1933,
A famine imposed by heartlessness.
Iosef in 1941, who knows where —
Babiy Yar? Ukraine was overrun with Nazis,
Building camps, shooting first, and never asking.

Home. Am I home?
Woomera. Baxter. Maribyrnong. Port Hedland.
Now we build camps, breed hate. I do not do enough.
My heritage is one of questioning and tikkun olam:
If not now, when? If not me, who?
Oh Aunty Sue, how do I apply
For a passport, from you?