Haram

I did not want to come here

Wherever here is

My town was like a cocoon

We the caterpillars

Swinging in every breeze

At the tree tops

I thought of flying one day

Just pushing off

Then they shook all of us down

Burned the branches

I could be squashed on the ground

Under booted feet

So I must be still as stone

And may never fly

©E R Olsen

Boko Haram seize women

E R Olsen writes poetry and practices law in Nevada, where he and his wife raised their four children. His poems have appeared in several U.S. journals and magazines, most recently in the Naugatuck River Review.