Highways of salt/pathways of struggle: The Sahara legacy

Location

Spain
40° 27' 49.2012" N, 3° 44' 57.192" W

They make no fanfare traversing the lands

Using the night sky’s cool cover

The ancient ones followed the stars

To hidden oases scattered across the desert

Driving camel teams laiden with prized commodities

Spices, textiles, jewels, metals and salt

 

The Sahara, a no man’s land

Only something to get through

It offers nothing but hardship, death and salt

Centuries old tracks invisible to the untrained eye

Pass the unmarked graves of millions over time

Succumbing to the heat and the jinns

 

Traders, travellers, slaves and warriors

Pilgrims, princes and kings have ventured here

Like lines cut by a river the pathways seldom change

Borders drawn by man in the sand

Do little to stop the flow

Of those wanting to escape what they can’t control

 

Lories loaded with human flesh

Traverse the miles of nothingness

Having no idea if they will ever see the sea

Risking life and limb in the hands of traffickers

Placing their bets on a suicide squad

For a chance to live again

 

How destitute have we made the world

In our race for power and wealth

The new age of slavery is dawning

Scattering nations far and wide

Driving humanity through hell

Littering the desert with skeletons turning to salt

This poem is about: 
Our world

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