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War Train Ukraine
A train journey in the Ukraine War
No street lights on the edge of Ukraine exiting the flat. Cold air briskly enters the lungs, blows against faces, awake! The flashlight bounces with each step taken on uneven pavement. Headlights illuminate the curbs at times. The way to the station is all downhill, steep in the low hills at the beginning of the Carpathians. A wild dog barks on the approach to the station. Outside, people, war people, wait for the train to Kyiv, smoking, talking on phones, saying their good-byes. A painted girl trying to flash fashionable bags stands as an old man steps out blowing his nose on the ground, both disgusting In their own unique ways.
Inside, people mill about for the next war train to take them wherever they may be going. This train goes closer to being in range of russian missiles and rockets, but they go anyway. Business must be attended to. Families must be fed. Studies must continue. Soldiers board, heading for the front. A smell of diesel on the tracks as the train pulls up, a bark of a dog further down the tracks as the conductors ready their cars for the passengers who travel in a war zone. No one hurries. They take their time boarding. An old couple says good-bye to their grandson in the next cabin sitting with him before the departure. Not long after, they wave through the window standing on the platform as the trains begins to ease from the…
