rupi kaur

Is our sense of place merely a question of circumstance?

Here’s a poem by Rupi Kaur (born 4 October 1992), Canadian poet, illustrator, photographer, and author. Born in Punjab, India, Kaur emigrated to Canada at a young age with her family. She began performing poetry in 2009 and rose to fame on Instagram, eventually becoming a popular "Instapoet" through her three collections of poetry.

bombs brought entire cities
down to their knees today
refugees boarded boats knowing
their feet may never touch land again
police shot people dead for the color of their skin
last month i visited an orphanage of
abandoned babies left on the curbside like waste
later at the hospital i watched a mother
lose both her child and her mind
somewhere a lover died
how can i refuse to believe
my life is anything short of a miracle
if amidst all this chaos
i was given this life

--circumstances

--Rupi Kaur [from her poetry collection "the sun and her flowers"