Stories to tell

Bellweg, asylum seekers center in Culemborg

At the Bellweg there are 1001 stories to tell,
stories that have long waited to be told,
a rollercoaster reason for flight,
moment in which too much happened,
event that a heart cannot bear,
loss that a mind cannot accept,
stories that have travelled far and fearfully
with forest and sea as witnesses,
uncertainty as makeshift destination,
and then the waiting and waiting again,
while stories still wait to be told,
or are told and not believed.

At the Bellweg countless stories are cloaked in silence.
Words dissolve in tears and dissipate.
The pen refuses and the hand is in shock.
Fear becomes an enemy of the freedom to tell,
shame stronger than desire, betrayal than trust.
Despair engenders despondency engenders despair.
There are things of the body not talked about.
Things of the mind one prefers to avoid.
Stories and their images remain vivid,
the telling bleakens and weakens.

At the Bellweg stories are added everyday.
Forgotten memories return to remind you
what has happened, who you are and once were.
New arrivals come with variations on a theme,
with faces familiar in shape and expression,
faces from farther and full of fragility.
New stories pop up on telephones,
the lost and found for family and friends.

At the Bellweg many stories are questions.
Are you an orphan if your fatherland betrays you?
Where is home if your mother country disowns you?
Is it possible, is it bearable to hate your own land?
Can you learn to like, to love what is so strange?
And always: what, who, when and why?

At the Bellweg 1001 stories are hoped.
Life might not get better, perhaps more peaceful.
You might stop running, waiting, wondering.
You might get the chance to start living again.

At the Bellweg there are 1001 stories to tell.

Mokhtar Bindhorob, English teacher (Yemen, Malaysia, Netherlands)
Martin Walton, Poet Laureate Culemborg (USA, Germany, Netherlands)