Experience Poem by Showkat Ahmad Wani

With haste, I tear my tongue and seal my lips,
And stitch each wound where leaking truth once bled;

I scrape my mind to cleanse the cruel stain,
Yet hear my brother weep on son's cold grave;

I crush my gaze to blind my sight from pain,
Beneath the tyrant's heel in glaring day;

I seal my ears to shun the wails of souls,
From lightless cells where breath in silence dies;

I choke my voice to still the rising cry,
Amidst the wailing souls of terror's vale;

I crush the news to shun the streets of blood,
That pound on every door to spread their grief;

I snap my pen to still the aching heart,
On pages torn from time to end with me;

I halt my steps to pass no threshold near,
Where once did dwell the tales of Shiv and Paarv;

I bear a tomb within my hollow breast,
Where Kashmir's hell is buried evermore.
(29 Dec,2005)