A HOME WE ARE IN NEED

A HOME WE ARE IN NEED

Sleepless nights after sleepless nights,

I thought over and over again,

But to no conclusion I came,

Where, how and when?

A house we have indeed,

But a Home we are in need!

A house is not a home,

If you don’t belong to it!

It was in 2003* when it all began,

When our home and village,          10

Burnt to ashes like a dream;

No choice left but refuge.

Then, here and there,

A shelter we’re not in want;

But a Home we are much in want!

But not easy to find or never?

They say why don’t you?…

Aren’t you?...or even rebuke;

But never they understand us,

Coz’ we talk and look like them,              20

But not say and see like them.    

And it's harsher with poverty!

To survive but not live; 

Longing for belonging!

Only hoping for the time,

When we shall have Home.

Yet not it comes at once!

Yet not I lose hope either!

To live like this is hell!

Impossible to bear forever!    30

One day or some day,

Far or near unknown,

Our eyes and heart

Will see and sing with joy, this way:

"This is our home, friends,

Come, eat and drink;

Hey Bro, Sis, Mom, Dad,

Take rest; Now we live,

In our sweet HOME”     39

*This refers to the ethnic cleansing campaign of the Dimasas in 2003 when they burnt down many of the Hmar villages, in N.C. Hills, Assam, including ours. Thousands of the Hmars, including us, had to flee our villages and seek refuge in several parts of the country. We, of course, got shelter some way or other, but never regain the past and recover the huge material loss, not to speak of the loss of precious human lives. I think our lot nears the lot of war victims in several parts of the world.

R. L. Muon Inbuon, Kolasib, 6^th Dec 2012


(This poem has been published in the souvenir of HSA Platinum Jubilee. Thanks to the Editorial Board).