What the BBC Could Not Have Known

What the BBC Could Not Have Known

BBC News, March 29, 2024:  
Limpopo, South Africa: Girl, 8, only survivor as 45 killed in bus crash

A wrong turn
sent a bus spiraling 
from road to ravine,
an unscripted ending 
to an Easter pilgrimage,
four seconds of scalding fear
slashed through forty-five people, 
except Lauryn Siako, 
eight years old, sole survivor,
for whom four seconds floated
without destination or deadline,
recalling her mother’s happy tears
as Lauryn boarded with her grandmother,
a soothing memory pierced by primal shrieks
which Lauryn imagined to be the call 
of a Martial Eagle carrying the bus in its talons
to a safe place in the shade of a Jackalberry Tree, 
she felt her body suddenly clutched,
perhaps the grip of a long-clawed Kalahari Meerkat
digging a hole in which Lauryn could hide, 
yet the arms clutching her smelled like home,
arms that stirred the savory pot of Seswaa 
with its aroma of fatty meat and onions,
arms that guided her to school each morning 
and home in the afternoon,
as Lauren Siako’s grandmother 
saved the life of her daughter’s daughter.