UA, yellow blue
on cars’ registration plates
rush along A1
urgency of men
heading home to what remains
weighed down with anger
through Austrian rain
Slovakia sweltering
just next door, the war
muddy Danube flows
past tourist boats, cafés, bars
as if nothing’s wrong
n.b. On a road-trip, I have now seen the Danube, fast-flowing, a seething river of summer storm run-off, as it heads toward Ukraine and The Black Sea, never to return. The drivers in the two UA cars that raced past me on the Austrian motorway, drove with similar single-minded urgency. After driving through Slovakia, they will be home. The war is that close to us.
~
CLP 17/07/2024
Journey of Words 