The Tsunami Victims Poem by Rohitash Chandra

My words hurt to describe
—what is left by the tsunami waves
That roared from all the sides—
and washed away two hundred thousand lives.

Now bare naked soil
swept out to the sea— people and poor people’s toil
The whole town full of people — vanished,
villagers were solemn gone, no one left to mourn.

The sail and ships were smashed into wood chips;
nothing is there left to keep
Drowned the fisherman, the farmer and the cook
a new record has been set in Tragedies book.

The trees were broken —ripped and torn,
leaving the body, their spirits have gone
Gone all gone, left rubble
only flesh and dead flesh seems to gurgle.

Those counting bodies could witness the pain
all wrecks— all wrecks, left no grain
Bodies were buried in mass graves
now silent and calm the dark waves.

Some left unidentified corpse at the roadside
wait till someone comes to claim the rotten remains
Or let the soil consume the fallen grain
left no clean water in the well or drain.


A child clung on a tree branch for days,
his cry—his cry blown by the wind swell
He waited till the waiting was over
weak and hungry, the only survivor.

It may take decades to be back again;
time has surrendered and been crushed under train
In these ruins it’s hard to capture the lost trail’s hope,
a tribute to the souls that to heaven eloped.