The Poem: Kashmir

To, the one in the mirror-a look alike of me, when last did I cry?

My prayer unlike Moses, won’t make it across the sea: when last did I cry.

( Shahid )

When river took the shore and the houseboats stopped floating.

Who answered when He asked, His throne it must be, “When last did I cry?”

( Ubaid Darwaish )

Those footprints only leave, never to be returned, so fresh in the snow.

What address for my love? Unnamed stone under some tree, when last did I cry.

( Abdul Wajid )

And beneath the unnamed tree the nightingales sing , a reminder to all

There lies our beloved , wish it was not you , wish it was me ! When last did I cry.

( Owais Qureshi )

When you go back, tell them you went to heaven, and turned it into hell.

And all that you left back there, were cries of a mother and a child who couldn’t see: when last did I cry.

( Javid Parsa )

In the shade of a Chinar: laughing, crying, breathing, moving on - everyday I must try:

What color will I paint my canvas, When they will set me free, when last did I cry

( Syed Mujtaba Rizvi )

Play with Fire and be burned. Can we gain what is yearned?

Hidden secrets in our cellar & buried in mindless lies, are we! When last did I cry.

( Nishu )

When innocents get killed, and murderers are set free, in a nation with receding humanity.

The moral imperative dictates: humanizing sedition was never so dear to me, when last did I cry?

( Dibyesh Anand )

The wretched of the earth, bare-bones and blood, trickling down sweat from the frail forehead

What forgiveness after such knowledge? bombed out of a dream are we, When last did I cry?

( Inshah Malik )

The stranger next to me strangely feels so familiar, I wonder why

his dead eyes mirror mine as he hangs by his neck, from the same tree; when last did I cry

( Sarita Tirumala )