It was a desert that seemed like a hell
The air was filled with a pungent smell
Small pebbles spread on the ground
I was alone, no one around
Tired and thirsty I sat on the ground
Gave a glance to the mounds,
As I put my palm on the dust
There was something on the crust
A small rotten milk-tooth I found
Far away I saw a walking Hope
Nearer it came, abused me with the words
‘This place is cursed, now u r too’
Dying with thirst I asked for water
He pointed in the north and murmur
‘Cursed for the cursed’
‘Cursed for the cursed’
Stranger was he but more strange what he tell,
I followed his directions and saw a well.
Horror it was, not a well
A gory sight, not a bless
Waters are white but here they were red
Filthy with chopped hands and head
I drank my thirst or it dried itself
Close my eyes and comforted myself
There I saw a crow with a seed in its beak
Followed by another with an empty mouth
He attacked the first and both quarrelled
They scratch and tore each other’s feather
To stop this fight I threw a stone
They stare at me (the giant for them) and flew away.
Tired and thirsty the giant took a nap
Few hours later the clouds came
It was unusual but a beautiful sight
I soaked myself in the blessed rain
The rain turned the seed into poppy;
The red and red and red poppy
In the barren land where there was no green
It was the first life that shoots
I saw a mob coming towards me
Including the man who cursed me
I was frightened and squeezed my arms
But it was the poppy that was their host.
I asked an armless boy that why they came?
He moved his dry, cracked lips and said
‘It was a drone that was employed
It was my school that was destroyed’
The writer can be reached at [email protected]
Published in Daily Times, August 17th 2017.