During the Partition

People fled their homes

On trains that left the platform

But didn’t always return

Littered with rubble

Splattered with blood

Filled with refugees

Trains of loss, sorrow, and hope

My grandfather once rode those trains

When he was only fourteen

Just a year older than me

Seeking safety

He arrived in a new land

But not without scars

Of all he had lost

Family, money, his home

But with hope

Faint but still there

Like an ember from a fire

About to spark again