A thousand mile journey of a lifetime
Arriving only to find and feel an empty wind and silence
There I hear the crying souls of many,
Victims of the torment of jungle heat and brutality,
Their oppressors stood nearby
Delivering the blows to claim their inhumanity.
A historical treasure forever preserved,
in the anguished memories drenched by the sun and tears of those unspared.
Now adorned and remembered in field of granite stone.Etched with a tribute to a father or a son.
One granite stone writes:
“…A vacant chair, an empty place,
How we miss his loving face…”
My eyes are closed, locked into dreams and thinking back---
All this for a bridge of death
And 250 miles of railroad
230,000 prisoners, diseased, starved, and no hope.
Yet another granite stone writes:
“Deep in our hearts his memory is kept”
I now join others for the return journey home,
But many more are left behind
Locked in a time not long ago but so far way
Theirs is yet a memory gone unforgotten.
To whom do we owe this embrace?
Painfully mankind can forgive itself…
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