Shall There be a Winter of Peace?

Thus dies Autumn, leaf by leaf, sigh by sigh

Under a sobbing winter sky.

Snow silence has fallen over

The mad Fall frenzy

Cryptifying the promulgated lull.

‘Night shall give you the cover. Run for your safety,’

Said Hussein.

And yet again

A drizzling night has given them a cover

Masking their soiled faces,

Guilt ridden eyes, slicing brains.

Do they not remember?

Husseins outlive each Karbala?

For us, slaughter never was a distinct memory.

Unsettled dust of Karbala

Still roams in our streets and playgrounds

And on our rooftops and school bags

and ruby foreheads.

Decades diffuse in our shriveled eyes

As birdless hush haunts our ‘Shehr’

And Yazid’s mercenaries march in alleys, hissing terror.

Rambling down the forsaken passage

I hear the Himalayan wind mumble

“They have usurped all Summers of silence,

Shall there be a Winter of peace?”