By Santosh Bakaya
Burhan, where have you gone,
You know, no birds chirp in this sad dawn.
Is it true that you have died?
But were you not just born?
You, who had looked around
your mother proud
eyes which were round.
Honestly, it is so bizarre
Just yesterday night you had twinkled like a star
In your two storey house, in your drowsy village
In Kashmir, chased your dream
Gushing like a stream.
Why this senseless killing
Scary and bone chilling?
Does this make any sense?
This murder of innocence
This butchering of tiny dreams
Who will be tried for this killing?
Of your dreams?
was your crime?
You were just a nursery rhyme.
Pure and innocent.
You just loved to romp and fool around
Your red cheeks glowing with mischief
With grief the walnut trees have gone stiff.
They, who had sung songs
While you went round and round
The dream of chasing a butterfly
And chirping with the birds
Of listening to yet another lullaby,
Or maybe another good night
All fallen silent
Burhan Why was your last story
Alas, so gory?
Come, listen to just one more song
The last and final lullaby.
Burhan, where have you gone?
A novelist-poet, Dr Santosh Bakaya stays in Jaipur with her husband, Lalit Magazine and college going daughter. She is from Kashmir. She recently won the Reuel International award for her long poem “OH HARK!” which is now part of “THE SIGNIFICANT ANTHOLOGY”.
Her e-book: FLIGHTS FROM MY TERRACE in Smashwords has been criticallly acclaimed and recently Vitasta Publishers released her new ‘poetic biography’ of M K Ghandhi: “BALLAD OF BAPU”.
A brief bio of Suhail H. Naqshbandi: A visual design professional and painter with over 19 years of experience in Graphic Design, Illustration, Cartooning, Animation and Photography.
