SatpuRA Haokip
Let me spell the beans
Of how Twenty Pandemic launched
A vitriolic attack on the migrants;
Of how our society tends to shunt them as they look blue.
From the inhospitable terrain of cities and towns
To their huts and thatches-
Their journeys are expressions,born of lived experiences,
Of an immense topography of poverty and deprivation.
Weary to the bone they lay down
To slumber on the tracks of rail.
This great exodus marked
A senseless community and humanity.
The wrenching scenes unseen by the keepers of society-
Mothers carrying children, trudging to their homes on highways, walking miles and miles more;
Of long marches of exhaustion and craving hunger,
Of seeing a companion’s death by fatigue;
Of a mother in her full-term and walking nevertheless,
Who delivers her child,
And then walks on again.
Some sustain only by rotis and chutney,
And some without both ends.
Bitter most experiences of life flavoured by untraceable tears of eyes,
They have become part of
the troubled collective memory of our dire times.
To continue living in a place
Where everyone behaves
As if you don’t exist,
That’s the worst part !
Has Margeret Bourke been with them
Even the silliest spice of their life
Will be embellished !!!
(Dedicated to migrant workers who have been forced to reach their homes because of the lockdown posed by the pandemic COVID-19)😰😰😰
