A Little Too Soon in Kashmir

Featured image by Masood Hussain

Childhood bends
in Kashmir
to lift a heavy rock
with both hands
and chases
an armored vehicle
with little, fast-paced steps

Childhood stares
at the muzzle
on its way to school
and walks past
the barbed wires
littered across
the broken streets

Childhood leans
against the wooden plank
of an old city window
and showers petals, almonds
on the bodies
shrouded in dust
and bulleted clothes

Childhood sits
on aged shoulders,
arms crossed around the neck,
fingers slipping
through the greying beard,
in long marches,
towards final-resting-places
of the fallen

Childhood sings
the slogans of freedom,
mourners’ chorus of joy,
tiny fists in the air,
and heavens listen,
even as it stutters
to name its own name

Childhood dreams
in the darkness
of countless lead-pellets
lodged like tumours
in fresh corneas
to mend
the ruptures of history

Childhood snatches
the gun
and leaps into the forest
to return and rise
into adulthood,
a little too soon,
in Kashmir