Skip to main content

The long way home - can't stop thinking of the day laborers who went walking home in the lockdown...

THE LONG WAY HOME
© Shreefal Mehta 11 April 2020

To hear this read out:  https://youtu.be/Mbfl1oZfFmY


A dusty road takes my steps along; To none left behind do I belong
One among many vanishing feet;  no place I can find to earn my keep
Cannot get paid for fear of the germ; drinking wine while they know we run
Cut from its thread like a kite; we’re still hurting from the bite
Sinking and swinging; floating but no mingling
Thousands yet alone; each step is going home
We walk forward to leave; No more bricks for us to heave
We built the gates they closed on us; What if we don’t return don’t catch that bus?
I have no food no water;  I carry two clothes my daughter.
I go to heed the call of my land; I have no fear I have given my hand.
There is no way no bus no train; I need no seat no more the crane;
The land of gold I came broke stone but see their apathy I must go home
The warnings I ignore, the troubles we all bore
To walk those many miles no worry; but I cannot stop I have to hurry
The call I heed in my spirit I hold; my way home to my heart of gold.
Hope is my river my road song; I take a step forward another along.
Forgotten feet leaving in the dark but some cared and made a mark
Water food and rest while we wait; For an opening which way to take
I didn’t read the article can’t touch that unseen particle
All we know for belonging we roam; any road we take is a long way home.
Any road we take is a long way home.


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Anticipation Moment

  Anticipation Moment by Shreefal Mehta    31 Dec 2024 To listen, click here: https://youtube.com/shorts/jeOLFxDFUbc? Can you anticipate without anxiety? Like birds, on winds gentle, ride,  wings stretched out, let thoughts glide. Are you eager without expectation? Circling in thermals they slowly rise, let the fragrance of ideas mesmerize  Are you excited without hastiness?    Hovering, hovering, now swooping, enjoy the scene just now forming. Eager, awaiting, excited, taste the moment.  In the eye of the storm, I’m vividly awake;  let thoughts circle;  ‘tis the ring I take.  Only the moment lives with fullness complete. Years months weeks count in days Many hours or minutes, all is just a haze Happy new year as fireworks flash and bells atoll. In each moment is the seed of eons, new and old At the stroke of midnight, the year past and new, lo behold! Hurtling through black space an inch at a moment… As I look down at the earth bel...

Not Every Poem must be finished

Not every poem must be finished     © Shreefal Mehta   3 July 2020   Hear it read out loud:  https://youtu.be/jwbEDNOh14U Not every poem that starts must be finished Not every dream must be dissected and diminished Some thoughts just offer a rare glimpse into the beauty of light Some birds soar high, not for food, just for freedom of flight.   Not every rule is meant to be followed or broken And not every thought must be followed or spoken The fading soft light of a dream often awakens a song, Your looks in the morn give life more meaning than poems long.   Not every poem that starts must be finished, Next dawn’s hidden in sunset’s curtains undiminished. The tiny seed hides a tree in full sight of those who would see The tiny atom holds more energy than all the waves in the sea   Behind the curled fist, unspoken, unseen muscles flex, Not every life that blinks is forgotten, as the poet reflects.

A Walk In The Autumn Woods

by Shreefal Mehta  Oct 2025 Jackets stayed home, boxed along with thoughts of winter.  The forest feels open, airy, and somehow lighter  After the hot and heavy broad leafy growth of summer.  Light-leaved branches invite the sun to pour in as through an open door Now bathing the moss and rust-leaved forest floor, all in shade before.  Yellow, orange red splatters covering the brown rustling carpeted floor Each leaf grown on its own high twig; and then fallen, perfectly in place  The wind, in which it once swayed, gently carried it down through space.  Once high pristine green, from canopy to carpet, still gracing patterns that interlace.  Every leaf unfurls its role fully, even as the leaf now lies.  Abundant growth now fallen in patterns, to human eyes, delight give. Like the leaf, observed or not, with total trust, in lows or highs,   Unknowing greater patterns, yet secure in each moment,  fully live.  Tiny flowers rise ...