we have arrived

Will we ever get there?

we’ve been driving for about

sixty-four kilometers

across the arid landscape

yet we haven’t found our stop

Everyone is thirsty

mad and hungry

the bus is covered in dust

and slowly choking on it

just like our lungs

there is a mother with a baby

who has been crying

for almost an hour now

the driver is just mute

except for his coughing

no one is immune to

the unforgiving dust

even the two young men

at the very back, just behind me,

with their gleaming foreheads

dripping sweat like tears,

are not spared. But as I

steal a glance at them

I can tell that they don’t

intend to smile at all today

suddenly another tire flattens

the driver pulls over aside the

barely-trekked desert road

and walks assuredly to the back.

someone has to change the tire.

I barely have enough time to

look before the two men spring

up and brandish a blade each

the lady next to me screams

and all I do is gasp and

tremble in my seat—

our fate is sealed—

maybe we have arrived

at a different place.

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