It was a long journey,

A trip by road,

A couple of hours on a bus,

We stopped to have a meal,

It was at the nick of time,

It was an unfamiliar place,

As I wasn’t a regular guest,

I saw these children,

A few of them,

Holding a hand luggage,

They were incessantly shooed by a woman,

“Kai jeka, kai tafi”, she said,

This means, “Go away, leave this place”,

These children

were adamant,

These children

were obstinate,

They were unrelenting

in their pursuit,

I sat down to eat,

It was a warm welcome,

Something

like a red carpet treatment,

The woman

and her girls were hospitable,

I wondered why those

children were unwelcomed,

It wasn’t too long

that I realised,

They were homeless,

Waifs and strays,

They were hunger stricken,

And in desperation,

Some offered

to help wash the dishes,

To get a meal in return,

Some just stood by the door,

Competing for the leftovers,

We had hardly finished eating,

That they sped in

for what remained,

This annoyed the woman,

This embarrassed her,

“Dan Allah, mai wanna,

ku tafi manna”,

This she said in anger,

She meant, “Oh! God what is

all this, leave this place

right now”,

It was strange to me,

I wondered why,

I imagined why,

Someone couldn’t afford

a decent meal,
Not asking for a sumptuous one,

It wasn’t too long,

Some years down the line,

I understood

what it meant to be hungry,

I understood its burning fire,

I experienced its pangs,

I had its fair share,

A bitter ordeal,

I have relived,

Even after then,

Why is food out of

the reach of the large few?

Why is it

a scarce commodity?

Why do we have to go for

an Indiana Jones

expedition for it?

Why the black gold chase

to get it?

Our government is confused,

So many advisers,

Too many complexities,

Our economy,

Has laid so many stripes on us,

A harmful economy,

Who will salvage

the situation?

There’s no decimation in view,

Now I cry,

When I see them,

Now I feel their pain,

I have taken a mandate,

I have pledged allegiance,

To give of my substance

to this cause,

When fortune smiles on me,

A cause worthy of embrace,

A cause divine.

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Mohamed Sarfan's picture

Dear Poeter, The poem is written on a very deep theme. Feelings are something that every human being has in some way. But the only difference is the paths perceived and followed. The lives of the indigenous people who go without a handful of food among the people who travel around the world for pleasure are coming to an end with tears. It is the curse of the world in which we live today that the number of people who are thrown into the fire of hunger day by day is increasing massively. Write More Congratulations

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