HOLDING EACH OTHER BY A THREAD
Shiva
Light shone through his tattered t-shirt
Blistered fingers holding onto his friends’
There were 5
Each holding onto each other in one way
The small one held the other’s pinky finger
Some held the rim of their trousers
All connected by thread and fear
His hair was tussled
Not by affection
But by the harsh wind
Knocking him out of school
The debts
His parents
The house
The harsh reality
Rendered him with no schooling
Now he stood in a circle of his friends
5 boys
Some tall, some short
Their fingers lingering on the other
The shortest one tugging onto the others trousers
We saw them
Their eyes glinted with tears
As though the sweat of their worn out soul
Glistening at the world
We saw them before we saw him
He walked in
No, strutted in
Hit the boy’s head with a sack
While his face was smiling
As thought a friendly gesture
His fingers were counting the money these kids would make
His eyes were glinting too
With tears
The tears of his soul watching him become foul
His eyes wavering
Like he was reading
While this man could read
He knew they couldn’t
No contract, no official documents
“the money will go to your family”
The kids were illiterate
Not dumb
They knew something was off
and we saw their instinct yelling at them to run
to go save themselves
but this was the time for us to enter
Dharbanga Railway Station
The juncture of many
The departure and arrival
These kids were missing
We took them into our wing
Forever fooled by elders
They don’t need to know about the traffickers
Or his plan
They needed schooling and education
This train too them to their homes
The children still believe
It was fate
A different train
A different destination
Form fear to school
Railway children
They believed that man’s words
Too soon too much
We were on time
They are children after all
Aren’t they?
Nandhitha Babuji is a 18-year-old aspiring poet from Tamil Nadu, passionate about using her words to show solidarity against children’s issues.
