CRUEL WATERS

Liquid terror floods thro’  Jammu and Kashmir’s body

telling altogether a different  ghastly story-

of  human  flesh ripped  apart

as if by acid rain

 to reveal  a large skeleton of broken  ribs

rocked by waves of muddy waters;

unleashing the face of some dark demons

that lurked inside the rivers on spate

to muzzle  the humans

and  munch bones of the poor hapless dead ;

spreading   horror of epidemic  into the spines

of the surviving  who scramble on the sheared banks

gazing into a big  blank sky

occasionally filled by some spectre of promise

by dronings of choppers targeted by stones pelted

out of sheer frustrations of the hungry  at them.

When will the beautiful valley again sing

of the beauty of waters ?

Of the glory of flowers ?

Questions like this in the broken nests ring

as we sit here on the banks

thinking only of today’s meals

that seem to elude us like morning dreams.

Comp. n copy right : saroj k. padhi

16/09/14