Platform Five

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._N._Taber

“Every heart to love will come but like a refugee.” – Leonard Cohen

“You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.” - C.S. Lewis

Today’s poem was written in the wake of seeing TV footage of a packed platform 5 at Lviv central station recently.

Now, yesterday’s open letter post  has been criticised by some readers, but I make no apology for suggesting that we need to err on the side of caution rather than all but sit up and beg for another serious wave of coronavirus. It is too soon, in my humble opinion, to dispense with all, even basic, precautions against Covid-19. Yes, it may result in some delays in the admin processes of registering and welcoming, refugees, but better that, surely, than a repeat of the stress and distress caused to patients, their families and friends, not forgetting over-stretched hospital staff...?

Hopefully, my reservations will be proven utterly groundless, in which case, no one will be more delighted than myself.

Meanwhile, on the matter of welcoming refugees being its own reward, it is always worth remembering that Albert Einstein was a war refugee...

PLATFORM FIVE

Crowds struggling for space,
the sobs of men, woman and children
expressing their distress
at leaving loved ones behind
to suffer the agony
of present and future uncertainties
as reflected all around
in warning sirens like ta partying of devils
trumpeting their evils

No exception made for either age
or disability, caught up in organised chaos
on platform five
at Lviv central station, transformed
into a landscape
of hope and despair, no one even sure
if and when their train
will arrive, unable to expect but more pain
at the end of the line

Train arrives, soon crammed full,
 tear-stained faces pressed against windows,
for final sightings
of those come thus far to see loved ones
at given a chance
to make a new life, though they be denied
their part in it
by an enemy determined to impose sure control
over any surviving soul

Ah, but the human soul, veteran
of wars fought in in bloody trenches, corridors
of power and everyday lives,
has tricks enough up its sleeve to take on,
defy and defeat dark forces
bent on in extinguishing Battalions of Light,
by calling on the wisdom
of all-embracing humanity lending it the authority
to define its spirituality

Copyright R. N. Taber, 2022