Afghans Falling From Plane as Panic Provokes Escape Poem by Bernedita Rosinha Pinto

I am leaving now,
there is a plane I can see,
I am running fast
as I have to get on it;
there are others also
who are running alongside me,
we want to get on that plane and go, just go;
there is anguish in our eyes
there is fear in our feet
there is panic in our mind
so together we run like a marathon.
I have to say goodbye to my homeland
I have to leave now before they shoot me;
I can see the plane on the tarmac
I do not know where it will take me;
I have clambered as high as I can,
there are others jostling with me,
they want to get in that plane somehow
and yet there is no place for them or me.
But the plane has started its journey
and it is moving slowly for a take-off;
I want to get on that plane and fly away
on a journey which will take me
to a far-off destination
but it will not be of my choice
but I want to go wherever the plane will take me;
and though I have not bought a ticket for myself
I want to still go to a place called - safety.
It has always been my childhood dream
to get on a plane and fly up in the skies;
so in any park I would climb on any old plane
and wave out to my brother,
he would stand there and wave back at me
and then we would take turns
to get in any old planes in the parks
and make our petty dreams come true.
But today is a nightmare
as now I have to get on a real plane,
and there is my brother down there
to wave back at me;
the plane is real,
the flight is real
and it has started to move fast;
I am holding on to the plane
and waiting with hopes but I am shaking;
the others are climbing on the wings,
some are sitting on the speed flaps
we are all hoping to get flying
and moving away from the horror we face;
but before the plane takes off
I jump off the plane
as I have not managed to get in
but as the plane is hovering up
suddenly I can see some men falling down,
one by one, they go toppling down.
I am still lucky to be standing on the tarmac
though I feel like a broken rafter
as I am shocked with the tragedy
I have just witnessed;
three men falling from a plane from high above
was not an easy sight to view or accept;
what if it was me falling down
from that plane, I asked myself.
And though it was dusty outside
I had seen many of my afghan brothers
frantically running along side that plane;
they were hoping to stop the plane
but the plane's speed had picked up momentum;
and when the plane was air-borne
most of us were left far behind;
helplessly we had retrieved
our footsteps and our hopes
and waited for another opportunity.
And if I do get on any plane
I will not know where it will take me
but I do know I will be leaving
my homeland, my father, my mother,
my family, my brothers and sisters
and I will be on my way to a new destination
so unknown to me.
and as I go I will carry with me
a very big pain
in my very little heart;
a pain called ‘heartache'
which will never subside;
as this anguish that we face in my homeland
can never be forgotten
and it will always follow me
as out of helplessness,
my instincts and my innocence
will force me to run
and be a refugee
just to escape the terror
that is devastating my country so vehemently.
So, Goodbye to my motherland,
I am leaving now;
there is another plane on the tarmac
and I have managed to get on it,
but will tomorrow ever know how it feels
to lose one's home and one's serenity
to the blatant desires of other men's will;
it made me and my country feel so tormented,
it turned our life upside-down
the trauma of this war will last forever
in my mind as escape was the only answer
and the only alternative
as I told myself - do not die.
And as I recollected the unlucky men
who were hanging on to that plane falling down
and missing their chances of survival
I silently cried for them
as those men that fell to the ground
must have died and traveled to eternity
but they will be missed by their families forever
while I will miss those I left behind at my own home
and perhaps I may never find them alive
when I return back to my homeland someday
as who knows what will be my country's fate then.