– Shannon Allen

We bought a peddler’s dream
Of hope, of change, of a better life
Our trunks held remnants of home
Carefully picked treasures out of
What we leave behind

Arms hold a last embrace that need
To last a lifetime
Through tears we face forward
Across oceans of water and wheat
To open plain, so different to our eyes

Keys to new doors
Our new life
Determination in our hearts
Strength in our hands
Mother tongue put to rest

Children born into a new world
A vibrant city who grows with them
forging new paths of a life
in a place they now call home
gathered friends now family

Now old hearts grow warm
With letters from family and memories
Of arrival tucked into the trunks
We see a future far beyond in our dreams
In the new hearts and minds of those we love

Hearts remember
When we see new trunks arrive
The look of apprehension of a place so different from home
But we offer hands, set a place at the table
Welcome them as we once were

Now or then

For change, for peace, for a better life
Crossing a new type of world
Only we all follow the hope
Of a peddler’s dream