Journey Poem by Prabhakar Subramaniam

Nothing has changed
The night train
Runs on the same track
Of bad memories
The hurts still hurt
The present looks at the past
With the same uncomprehending eyes
Of why chaos came in uninvited
When it could have been otherwise
Of why someone saw what she saw
Believed what she saw
And found it difficult
To see ever again things like everyone else - -
Not see terrible visions that never existed;
Not cower over shadows rooted in air - -
She too has left the train
Like father, mother and the other sibling
In their own order,
Though the first one disembarked
Long before I came on the scene;
I wish I could be like my father
When he travelled
Leaving every care behind
Living in the moment
Relishing the cadences of the carriage
Revelling in the chit-chat
Peering out and naming
The wayside stations
With a childlike pleasure
Perhaps having learnt on the way
That everyone is ever in transit
That there were only arrivals - -
That there was
Never any arriving.