DON'T CALL ME FOREIGNER

Don't call me foreigner,
because I was born far from here,
or because the name of the home
I come from has a different name.

Don't call me foreigner,
because I was born of a different womb
or because my childhood was cradled
by stories in another language

Don't call me foreigner,
through the love of a mother
we shared the same light
of lullabys and kisses,
with which we dreamed whilst
rested in our mothers chest.

Don't call me foreigner,
don't think about where I come from,
better to know where we go,
where time takes us.

Don't call me foreigner,
because your bread and fire
calm my hunger and cold,
and your roof shelters me
as it shelters you.

Don't call me foreigner,
your wheat is like my wheat,
your hand is like mine,
your fire like my fire,
hunger never warns,
and lives in us all.

Don't call me foreigner,
because of the path brought me,
because I was born in another village,
because I know other seas
and once I lifted anchor in another port.

Always the same
are the waves of goodbye,
are the tearful eyes
of those we leave far behind

The friends that speak of us
use the same prayers,
as is the love that dreams
of the day of our return



Don't call me foreigner
we carry the same soul
the same old tiredness
that has been dragging man
from the beginning of time,
when borders didn't exist,
before they came,
those who divide and kill,
those who steal, those who lie
those who sell our dreams,
those are the ones that invented
this word, foreigner

Don't call me foreigner,
it is a sad word,
it is a cold word,
it reminds of oblivion and exile.

Don't call me foreigner,
look at your child and mine,
how they run holding hands
to the end of the path

Don't call them foreigners
they don't understand languages
or boundaries or flags
look as they go to heaven
on the smile of a dove,
that reunites them in flight.

Don't call me foreigner
think of your brother and mine,
a body full of bullets
kissing the ground with its death,
They, were not foreigners
they always knew each other
through eternal freedom,
and equally free they died.

Don't call me foreigner
look deep into my eyes
beyond the hate,
the selfishness and fear,
you will see I am a man,
and you will see that I am you,
I cannot be a foreigner.

Rafael Amor