Kashmir Dreams

Memories and nightmares my days sustain
Kashmir re-surges in my blood, thick with pain

Torture cells around the crystal lake abound,
while dead disappear below without a sound.

Snow capped hills bear a silent testimony
to firings, rapes, and repressive hegemony

rolls of barbed wires cut every street in two
dicing minds, people, cultures and memories too

Young hands pick up stones and throw
at soldiers, police, and every Indian foe

Mothers beat their chest and wail
at dead sons, bruised, bloodied, cold and pale

Lands shrouded in deep, merciless snow
silent, as the dead pile un-named below

no spring will melt heart's winter ice
where Azadi is claiming a lover's price

Oppressors, that is the name for you and I
a sentence, I will shamefully bear, till I die.