“When a stranger resides with you in your land, you shall not wrong him. The stranger who resides with you shall be to you as one of your citizens; you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt” (Lev. 19:33-34).

Arguably any poem benefits from a second reading, but the below poem about the refugee crisis is one you have to read twice.

Using a similar structure to Jonathan Reed's "The Lost Generation" and Julia Copus' "The Back Seat of My Mother's Car", Bilston's "Refugees" creates two different readings from the same set of lines — while making a powerful point about some of the angry rhetoric that's shadowed the refugee crisis.

"It's a topic that polarises opinions," Bilston told the indy100. "To be able to take one extreme approach and then play it back on itself to come up with a far more humane position gave it its power, I think."

They have no need of our help
So do not tell me
These haggard faces could belong to you or me
Should life have dealt a different hand
We need to see them for who they really are
Chancers and scroungers
Layabouts and loungers
With bombs up their sleeves
Cut-throats and thieves
They are not
Welcome here
We should make them
Go back to where they came from
They cannot
Share our food
Share our homes
Share our countries
Instead let us
Build a wall to keep them out
It is not okay to say
These are people just like us
A place should only belong to those who are born there
Do not be so stupid to think that
The world can be looked at another way

(now read from bottom to top)

Select this cover to read the picture book.

Brian Bilston’s poem, Refugees, was first shared through social media in 2016. Its unique palindrome message prompts discomfort and then surprise as the two readings, forwards and then backwards, convey conflicting views about refugees.

Bilston’s words seen alongside Sanabria’s illustrations produce a very powerful interanimation, resulting in a mortifying beginning and a joyful ending … Sanabria’s work has been considered dystopian and in Refugees his style is a mix of collage and paint - they challenge our emotions as we see them in interaction with the words. It’s a picture book for slightly older language learners, as it is best used as a prompt for discussion.