Another reflection on the current refugee crisis, this time by Rowena M Love, joint winner of 2012’s McCash Scots Poetry Competition. Here she writes in English.

LET’S PRETEND

A drowned child floats into view

on a tide of rhetoric, empty promises

and political squabbling.

As his image bobs up yet again on my feed,

my five year old’s voice is a siren call

luring me to her world

where we can all be who we want to be,

nothing has to stay the same.

The world can be exactly as we wish,

until we change it two seconds later.

The winds of war not even a breeze to her,

the darkest cloud soon tinted rainbow

by mermaids and magic.

Let’s pretend we can keep it that way.