Poem: Till We Meet Again…

by Harleen Kaur (India)

Now

Now, that borders have distanced

Us,

I wonder,

How am I ever going to see you again?

 

Maybe

Maybe, I’ll become air and

Cross those wires.

I’d caress your hair as I used to

With my delicate hands,

Under the moonlight.

Do you remember my touch?

 

Or

Or, I’ll become a fish and run with

Chenab or Jhelum.

I hope when you see me

You’ll hold me with your manly hands,

Like you used to clench my waist.

(I won’t fear death now,

Because in a jiff I’ll wake up to eternity).

 

Or

Or, I’ll become a bird,

I’d carry oomph of this land in my feathers

And

Bring it to you.

I hope you’ll run your fingers through those

Feathers and feel it,

As you used to…

I’d sing songs of freedom.

 

Freedom

Freedom, well, I still wonder,

How people confined in barbed wires be free?

So,

Now,

I’ll live in the air.

Hanging from this tree of love.

With a two metres of clothe around my neck,

That couldn’t save me from fiends.

 

I’ll be hanging here.

Till the land underneath both of us become one.

Till we meet again.

 

*This Painting has been made by Saurabh Singh, a student of Gujarat Public School (Vadodara, India) and is a copyright of Aaghaz-e-Dosti.

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Harleen Kaur has pursued English literature from University of Delhi. She curates time in pictures and prose.

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Poem: Koi Jang Meri Na Khushiyan Ujaade by Ravi Nitesh (India)

Kahani nahi hai ye teri meri

Ye hai ek daastan dard bhari si,

Sarhad pe rehne walon se puchho, 

Unke liye kya hain jeene ke maayne,

Vo kehte hain es saal fasal khoon ugi hai , 

Vo kehte hain baarish bhi badhiya hai aayi,

Dua bas hai honi itni kubool ab,

Mere khet me koi tank bomb na aaye,

Bagal ke jile me hai phulon ki kheti,

khushboo uski udkar mere khet aaye,

Dua bas hai honi, itni kubool ab,

Koi phool abki raunda na jaaye,

Na aaye yahan baarudon ki khushboo,

Sunayi na de mujhko cheekhein pukarein, 

Maalik mere bas itna hi de,

Koi jang meri na khushiya ujaade…. 

*Painting by a Pakistani student, Mohammad Hamza. This painting is copyright of Aaghaz-e-Dosti.