EN ROUTE

Dennis Brutus

Sixty packed in a truck

We sat or srouched or percched or squatted

Warm shoulders, hips, elbows, knees

Squeezed and jostled in the predawn dark

Forced into  contorted postures by the chains

Talking, laughing, reminiscing, telling tales

Cheering each other with courageous exhortations

Or stilled as the heart was clutched by grim forbodings:

And suddenly the sky-rim blazing with flame and blood

While from the dusk flowered the friendly faces.