O, Europa: migration blues (Satis Shroff)

O, EUROPA: migration blues (Satis Shroff)

Pic Courtesy: pixaby

SWALLOWED BY THE SEA (Satis Shroff)

Lost in the Mediterranean,

I, a passenger, on my way to Mother Europe,

Was swallowed by the sea.

A ship left Al Khoms,

120 km east of Tripolis,

On board 250 people seeking asylum.

Why a passage across the Mediterranean?

There is no safer way,

Out of the outlet Libya.

What remains afloat

Are rubber and plastic trappings,

The relict of a boat,

Sans humans on the waves

A hundred souls are feared drowned,

34,196 risked their lives,

Trying to reach Europe by sea.

Is death by drowning

Not a reason for asylum?

Lost in the Mediterranean

I, a passenger, on my way to Mother Europe,

Swallowed by the deep sea.

Lost in the Mediterranean,

I, a passenger, on my way to Mother Europe,

Swallowed by the sea.

Desperate and vulnerable,

Homeless in captivity.

Detention camps and human smugglers,

Press the last energy and money

Out of the captives in Libya.

No safe and legal routes

For migrants and refugees.

Alas! Hope of freedom ended

In watery graves.

Lost in the Mediterranean,

I, a passenger, on my way to Mother Europe,

Swallowed by the sea.

The only rescuers are ngos

And commercial ships.

After years of sea tragedies,

Paris and Berlin came up 

With a new influx mechanism.

But populist minister Mateo Salvini

Quarrels with Macron and Merkel

In Fortress Europe.

Europa, is this your victory

Over humanity after colonial wars,

Exploitation and plundering?

My head came up thrice

And then no more.

Too tired to fight,

Too forlorn the cause.

I sank into abhorred depths.

My hope for Europe and freedom,

Went with me.

Remember me,

Only remember me.

I didn’t reach the shore,

I breathed no more.

Lost in the Mediterranean,

I, a passenger, on my way to Mother Europe,

Swallowed by the deep sea.

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© satisshroff,2019

* * *

JUSTICE ON EARTH (Satis Shroff)

In the Aegean Turkish town of Bodrum,

Two Syrian human smugglers are on trial

Of causing death by drowning.

Three year old Alan Kurdi, his sister and his mother.

The boy lay face down on a beach,

Washed in by the waves.

The media was there.

Verdict: deliberate negligence.

A belated justice won’t bring the dead back,

But adds belief of justice on earth.

© satisshroff,2019

* * *

(c) pic courtesy IOM

Note: Lampedusa shipwrecks: @MissingMigrants has recorded nearly 15,000 deaths in the Central Mediterranean. The 14,736 migrant deaths and disappearances since 2013 are equivalent to ten times the death toll of the Titanic shipwreck. Unlike the Titanic, migrant boats do not have passenger lists, and many deaths likely go unrecorded.

* * *

O, EUROPA

O, Europa!

My desire was to reach your shore

But that was not to be.

After a great struggle to survive,

The elements got

The better of me.

I found instead

A watery grave.

O, Europe!

I regret my quest

For a safe haven,

In the cradle of western civilization.

Liberty, Fraternity, Equality.

I thought Europe was a happy continent

But what I felt in my drowning heart,

Was not a welcoming land of dear souls.

Your loathing towards the helpless,

Became evident as you hid

Behind Fortress Europe.

34,361 children, women and men

Languish at the bottom

Of the Adriatic and the Mediterranean Sea.

O, Europa!

Do you have a soul?

(c) satisshroff,2019