DeAlaundria Gardner is a Cal State East Bay student who wrote this poem from the perspective of a Syrian refugee addressing the recent immigration crisis in America and Syria.

From the perspective of a Syrian refugee:

Are we not one?

A single soul,

You and I,

We in control?

We are only human.

Do you not bleed when thy skin is cut?

Equally do you not die from bullets bust?

Are we not kin or brethren?

Are we not judged by one Most High?

We, you, I.

We are only human.

They divided our homelands,

War has brought a river of blood and bodies,

Those bodies of my cousins, neighbors, friends,

I want to be freed of what my country now embodies,

But this is a war that may never end.

We are only human.

They say I should not speak out,

In my country that could get me killed,

That is why I came to Amreeka,

To find a place to heal.

We are only human.

Yet even in America I sometimes lose hope,

For feeling misunderstood and forever misrepresented

I almost cannot console.

After all,

THIS IS NOT MY TRUE HOME!

We are only human.