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54 The Night Train Passenger-victims, sturdy and frail Looks menacing, and meek Like tigers defending territory Or lamb seeking out survival Cargo, under and around them Women, babies glued to their backs, crying All praying – for some salvation Under the squelching sun and into the moonlight They must wait, fighting out these awful hours Families bid multiple farewells Finally, the monstrous metallic snake shows up It’s a mad battle to board Madder still the next phase – for seats A sudden deafening horn follows another eternity The huge thing jerks forward Dark smoke engulfs the pristine atmosphere Then, an angry and nonchalant loudspeaker scream The train will be leaving in five minutes No one heeds, for it never does The boarding battle, now a penultimate war For seats – any kind of space This is Existence, here and now Again, the monster jerks forward. And stops! Sending its screaming human cargo 55 Bumping into metal, livestock and cargo Just the start to a three-hundred mile, twelve-hour nightmare With thieves, watchful for a loose wallet, or anything As ‘travelers’ sell “their” seats to the frail and desperate Vendors galore peddling everything and anything Foodstuffs, water, alcohol, clothes, gadgets, open and concealed Squeezing their way through human and other cargo, in the dark Tonight there are fifteen aged wagons, packed full Ninety-nine sitting, nine ninety-nine standing Suffering and smiling, the popular song says As this monster creaks and crawls from side to side And passengers mimic, in spite of themselves, the dance Of the night train on the Douala-Yaounde line Fonkeng E.f. ...

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