Home, Sweet Home

They walked...and they walked!  prolonged stretches of a disastrous journey -  hundreds of miles of uncertainty. Odyssey which seemed like an eternity! In blazing sun, in sweltering heat -  escape from the sufferings of an inferno.  to villages with shady trees!  Destination so far away.  Thirst, hunger, bleeding.  They trudged..fatigued babies  hanging on their shoulders like sandbags,  starving infants clutching hands,  tears dry on their cheeks.  Men and women - trudged, stumbled, dragged themselves! left cities where cruelty is the only language, villages with shady trees - Home, sweet home, far away.  Burning sun, sweating bodies,  growling tummies, dry throat, slogged beside railroads - followed tracks, no trains, no buses, no trucks, no vehicles. ill-fated souls... Only two weary feet to carry  them to their destination, plodding with all their might  until the body almost came to a halt! Lay down on the tracks - cold, and merciless!  come rest, come sleep, come death -  Oh Darling Death, the ultimate peace.. doomed tracks - plastered with blood! Destination never came. Notes: On May 8, 2020, a train in western India (Madhya Pradesh) ran over migrant workers sleeping on the tracks, killing at least 16, among a group of people returning to their villages, according to officials. Tens of thousands of labourers had been walking home from India’s key cities after losing their jobs in those weeks because of a sudden lockdown imposed to contain the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.  Edited on October 11, 2021, from my own free verse poem -"Never Reached Home" posted in 2020. Inspired By " A Historical Glance Back Poetry Contest" Sponsor: BJ Legros Kelley