THE LOST PARADISE

The night was scary,

Dark, long and dreary,

The night's bosom pierced with sounds of bullets,

Air raided by the sound of the fundamentalist zealots,

They shot my father,

Beat and broke all bones of my mother,

My, no, no, 'our' sister was raped and brutalised,

She lay in gore, lifeless, paralyzed,

I called and cried for help,

But just a helpless, wounded dog yelped,

Towards your house I ran, I knocked thrice on your door,

But you did not open, preferring religious animosity, that we both deplore,

Why my dear friend did you not respond to my calls and pleading annotations?

That night I lost all, me, my joys, my relations,

The bond of friendship quashed, my Paradise  was lost!

©Madhumita

* written affected by the Exodus in Kashmir