The picture of three-year-old Aylan Kurdi, washed ashore on a Turkish beach, as if in deep sleep, has sent ripples of anger across the globe and inspired artists everywhere to pay their tributes.

Like fellow social media users worldwide who saw the photo, Michael Spagnol woke up yesterday morning and tapped out a poem about the little Syrian migrant, after he “probably dreamt about the picture”.

Once upon a time, a boy, aged around five, had to run away by sea, his poem Tinżilx tgħum starts. There was also a little girl, aged around five, who went swimming, running and playing by the sea. But the poem suddenly loses its flow. Don’t go swimming, it warns, because the wind is southerly, and it has washed everything ashore – algae, plastic bags, jellyfish, dead fish… and also a boy, aged around five.

The poem ends without a rhyme. There is no rhythm or sequence, but just the shock, as if we are
lost for words

“The poem ends without a rhyme. There is no rhythm or sequence, but just the shock, as if we are lost for words,” Dr Spagnol, the founder of the Facebook page Kelma Kelma explained.

In recent years, migrants fleeing across the sea have stirred artists in a similar way, such as Immanuel Mifsud in his Il-Gaġġa, about migrants holding on to fishermen’s tuna cages in the open seas.

Dr Spagnol noted that unlike other dramatic pictures of children washed ashore, something in this photo had moved everyone in the same way. In fact, the publication over the weekend of photos of dead children in Libya triggered a debate about journalistic ethics, but it was the image of the boy wearing a red T-shirt and blue shorts that sparked an international outcry over the human cost of migration.

Artists like Glenn Ellul took up their drawing pad to put the “sleeping boy” to rest, posting their illustrations online under the hashtag #HumanityWashedAshore.

Some drew little angel wings on the boy, and others drew Aylan face down, resting on a bed. Aylan, his five-year-old brother Galip and mother Rehan died in a final desperate attempt to reach relatives in Canada. The little one, born when Syria was already at war, was only survived by his father Abdullah.

The family fled by boat after they reportedly had their asylum application rejected.

Excerpt from Michael Spagnol’s Tinżilx tgħum

… Tinżilx tgħum
għax ġie riħ isfel
u daħlet l-alka
u koċċ ħaxix
borża tal-plastik
titbandal fil-wiċċ
lilo imtaqqab
u xebgħa bram
u ħuta mejta
tinten tmisshiex
u tifel
ta’ xi ħames snin