At the passport office
Colour abounds
Black, brown, and blond, coloured or not!
Curly black hair, with a hint of copper
Braded hair the colour of midnight
Blond hair of various shades
Brown hair, and even bright red!

Some have come in jeans
Some in a fancy dress
A few are wearing shorts
Someone is wearing a suit!

I see a pregnant lady
A baby too
With beautiful black curls
Carefully coiffed

We are all waiting for our chance
To travel beyond the borders of Canada
Into the world
Back home
Or somewhere new

As I look at all the faces
I see the world
Assembled in this waiting room
And I hope the time will come soon
When this diversity will be celebrated
And we will all feel like brothers and sisters
Not just countrymen
Who tolerate each other because they are told to!

Lida Berghuis
June 12th, 2006

Not long ago
I explored this thought
Who am I?
Who have I become?
Because we start out as caterpillars
And it takes a while
To become a butterfly

The process is long
And painful most times
But the results make it worthwhile
The cocoon is suffocating and oppressive
But those conditions are necessary
For the emergence of the butterfly

And once in the cocoon
We can’t give up
We can’t look back
There is no way but forward
There is no turning back

We tread the path of patience
And steadfastness
And we persevere
And sometimes we burn in the fire of trials
The process of transformation
Is never easy
Always hard

But with a smile on our faces
And with love in our hearts
We concur each obstacle
We survive

The result is a beautiful butterfly
Free to fly
Free to roam the sky
Free to visit flowers from dawn to dusk

Lida Berghuis
March 28th, 2006