My dangerous journey starts,
No time to dawdle or tarry,
Just a few belongings reduced
To what I can easily carry.
My life rolled up in a backpack
Slung from one shoulder,
My departure documents tightly
Clasped in a plastic folder.
Walking slowly up this gangway
Into the bowels of this plane
Twenty years of change and hope
After the Taliban's harsh reign.
Goodbye sere brown mountain land
Harsh, severe but still mine
It's all behind me now as I sit
On this evacuation line.
Most of my life under occupation,
I can barely remember the Taliban,
A child when they left so I grew
Up in a very different Afghanistan.
A harsh and hasty decision made
Causing many to hesitate and grieve
Before taking the only real decision
It's time to pack up and leave.
A life of uncertainty in a new place
Heavens knows where it will be
Only one thing certainly known
We'll have the status of refugee.
You have much to answer for
After such a long stay
Just to suddenly decide
To up and walk away.
As you retreat once again
Do you really expect
The rest of the world
To still treat you with respect.
There's fear and desperation as
Your occupation finally ends,
The clock starts to turn back as
Our New Dark Age truly descends. .
