SYMPHONY OF FREEDOM

*This article is an honorary entry for Kashmir Solidarity Day Competition*

As my body lay on the battlefield, stiff,

Drained, in agony, growing colder and colder; 

My heart lies in my homeland, finally free, 

Dancing with children, celebrating victory, 

As the clouds above me grow darker and bleak, 

Roaring like a hurt beast, weeping for the lost, 

The ones above my valley give way to the Sun, 

Spreading light in alleys that have long forgotten it. 

As my threads are being severed, untied from this world, 

As my soul is pulling away, departing to a better place, 

I feel anxious, frightened, but not sorrowful, 

No, for the God who promised to be kind, 

Won’t leave me when I did not leave his people behind, 

That is my belief, the one on which I fought with my life. 

As my rusted gun sinks in a silent slumber, 

Never to be awaken from this peaceful dream; 

The people in my city will sleep with tranquillity tonight, 

Monsters won’t come to steal their dreams ever again. 

I feel my throat closing, my heart becoming static, 

The ground feels soothing, it’s ready to embrace me now. 

The air gives off the scent of hope wrapped in death, 

The wind carries the taste of the river flowing nearby, 

Somewhere close, I hear the freedom in the laughter,  

Of the children that will grow up without these chains. 

How long can a human oppress another human,  

When God created us all unfettered, our spirits unrestrained. 

If they seal our lips to confine history, we will write it with our blood, 

If they bind our hands with their laws, we will fight with our claws, 

No matter how many holes they try to put in us, 

We will keep pushing forth, till their feeble wall falls, 

We may depart but our ambitions will not. Who said, 

that body and existence of a human die as one? 

            

By Zarbab Zafar, FMDC.