Refugee Boat

by

Hatred bursts.
Village submerges in blood.
A boat floats on fear.
Voice is one among the precious possessions they lost.
Groan from the old engine continues.
A lanky lady stares at the wake through the mist.
Her memory lane is moist.

Their boat capsizes a few meters away from the new shore.
They bob on rough waves like wooden splinters of a society.
Some sink.
Others swim to life.

Within a wreath of strange eyes, she rocks her breathless baby gently in her arms.
Who’s insane?
That’s the question.

Merchants of massacre lurk.
Another boat with merchandise of misery will come soon.

First appeared in The Literary Hatchet.