First written on Sunday, June 10, 2001
My little vale, why do you cry?
why do your airs sigh?
What ails your mountains?
What shut your fountains?
How did your blossoms cease?
What happened to the evening breeze?
Who set your shrines aglow?
And why doesn't the Jhelum flow?
Where did our neighbors go?
And why could we not know?
Who is that khaki scarecrow?
And why do the winds not blow?
Those joyful sweet songs
Are they replaced by our wrongs?
Our warm nuptial surges
replaced by sad dirges
Shall cool zephyrs kiss us again?
Will groovy buds adorn us again?
Sameer
[First written 9 years back, in the midst of mindless violence in Kashmir]
