Poem: They say train tracks sing of home
Photo: The Hindu
By Umang Kumar
overhead lines hum
carrying news of our journey
soon we’ll be home
steel tracks
straight and true
steel on steel
wheels on tracks
tracks worn smooth
fire and furnace
sweat and steel
hammer and tongs
hammer and sickle
plough and plate
home and hearth
iron gates
iron chains, iron locks
lockdown chains
around feet
we have nothing to lose but
fire still burns
feeds
on the steel
of our resolve
the ironfist of hunger
claws inside
feet unchained
clang on asphalt
muscle bone sinew
steel pistons propel
brute ironhorse
they say train tracks
sing of home
let us lay our heads down
lulled to sleep
in a steel cradle
they are showering
rose-petals on us
they are showering
rose-petals on us
i hear
a train will take us
home
Note: On May 7 2020, 16 migrant workers, out of work from a steel factory, while trying to return home, were run over by a train when then fell asleep on rail tracks in Maharashtra.
Bio:
Umang Kumar is a writer based in Delhi NCR.
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One Response to “Poem: They say train tracks sing of home”
Oh, wow. This is stunning.