Waiting for the Militants

By | 1 November 2019

‘And now, what’s going to happen to us without barbarians?
They were, those people, a kind of solution’. — Cavafy

Why have we stopped?
Have we arrived at the village?
Is this the border?

There is a large assembly of people on the road…
I do not know what place this is,
but if it is not the border, it certainly is the fringe.

Why are the people, men, women and children,
gathered in a circle? What are they looking at?

They are looking at fishermen
sitting around a large pool
that has formed on the road.

But why has the entire population turned out?

They are waiting for us to write
about a fish pond that has formed
on a road that is no road;
to write about the villagers
fishing for fishes that do not exist.

What do they hope to achieve?

They have been waiting for the politicians
who never come; they hope the information
will at least bring others from across the border;
but most of all, they are waiting for the militants.

The militants?

They are, these people, a kind of hope.

Shall we return home, then?

We have come here to write about our border villages;
their livelihood and the amenities provided to them…

If we have seen a fish pond that has formed
on a road that is no road
and villagers fishing for fishes that do not exist,
what else do we need to write about?

This entry was posted in 93: PEACH and tagged . Bookmark the permalink.

Related work:

Comments are closed.