The Echo - based on the devastating effect of US invasion in Afghanistan
Eyes were ajar but didn’t want to wake up
Neither did they all, whom I had to shake up
I was always the first one to be up, acutely those days
Zaid, my grandson, the my life’s essence, was still asleep
Today, like always began looking at his crystal face
Listening to the timbre of his breath, so deep
He couldn’t sleep without me
And I couldn’t wake up without him
Entreaty with god, my only plea
Was him, my wish and my whim
Our small timber house was perhaps enough
For all eight members of our family
It was warm with the warmth of our bonds
Warmth of our blood, and of the green tea!
My daughter in law, beautifully brewed the beverage
The potion that used to awaken us in that cold
“Oh! He’s awaken” I said, nipping the tea
He, still in his dreams, rapt in the story untold
My two sons and my eldest grandson, Aahil
Were now ready to go for work
My granddaughter, Yara came to me
With her friend, a lamb, whom I tried to shirk
She said, “You’re forgetting something, aren’t you?”
“Oh! Yes. Raiz, we have to go to the market.”
“But…” “Don’t worry, it won’t take much time”
“But for what?” “Some clothes and a carpet”
“That’s alright, today, we can afford to stay”
Said Rehan, while tickling him
And he, was chuckling, tittering on hay
“Wool is ready, we have to trim”
Raiz went out, to get the wagon from the farm
And I looked at him, kissed his cheek
“Get back on time” “Don’t be alarmed!”
He gurgled, trying to say, but couldn’t speak
We took the artery going down the valley
I murmured “For him I’ll get a cap”
And then, we saw a fleet of flying metal
Erasing the town, bombing the dell’s lap
My eyes blinked, the flames winked
The blaze was so intense that we were jolted
A buoyant town was now extinct
My heart was numb but head revolted
“What is that?” “They’re bombing the village”
“Why?” “Don’t know, but we cannot stay here”
I couldn’t speak, but see the pillage
“Just go back” the sinister air, I couldn’t bear
“They’re coming!” the sinful machines
flew over us “They’re going back!”
Little did I know that they wouldn’t
But fill my life with angst, with a sudden attack
Before I could do anything
They dropped a fireball
Near my cottage, my Elysian
My eyes witnessed the dead fall
The dead were falling, the shed was falling
A tear trickled down my cheek
I stood still, my life instead was falling
Ears could hear silent men screech
The windmill, which before, was erect
Was now like the walls, oblique
And then the last metal of fire fell from
The metallic vultures, by callous clique
A huge explosion up surged
Swallowing the entire hamlet
The debris fell, gripped by flames
Eyes wanted to seal, the blaze didn’t let
The fire fused with the hyetal of the glen
My tears fused in the fiery wind
The sky was draped with hideous black
And land was now black skinned
Another vulture dropped another fireball
In the wagon, Raiz was inside
In a few seconds, I was thrown in the river
My heart was ablaze in water; I cried
I ran towards my home
Up the cliff, I saw grief biffed
Ashes of wood, and of souls
Roasted bodies, charred air, I sniffed
Not all men were deceased
All were not that fortunate
With bronze blood, some were greased
As if of living carcasses, it was a fete
In the midst of myriad facades
And clamor of death
I ignored the sound of a baby bellowing
And the timbre of his deep breath
I ignored the screeches of the handless
Condoned the silence of the lifeless
Pardon me, I didn’t mean to
But they condoned my apology, I guess
At last, I reached my Elysian,
A paradise lost in the flares
Flares even covered molten corpses
Perhaps those were of my heirs
Once again, I heard a baby bellowing
Once again, it made me insane
In the air, the echo was flowing
I realized, he was alive, not slain
Rashly, I went near the windmill
Where I heard that elegy, those cries
It was all covered with fallen ramparts
I couldn’t see his crystal face, or his moist eyes
He heard me, his cries got agonizing
Shrills; hysterical, I became
Started removing the sterile ruins
Blowing the fire off and calling his name
Skin was shedding off my hands
Like autumn’s withered leaves
Blood coagulated with the singed wood
Tears with dust, gathered into cleaves
The echo of his cries was still in the air
But soon I realized that it was a resonance
The burnt paradise was now silent
But an abysmal mirth, I did dispense
The flying vultures took his life
He was of eight months, I was eighty five
He wasn’t a terrorist, his crystal eyes closed forever
Without him, I think, believe, that I shouldn’t be alive
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Submitted on May 02, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 4:15 min read
- 11 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | AA BCXC DEDE XDXD FGDG HIDI JKXK LELE XMXM DNHN OPOP XXFQ XRGR SHTH SMSX XMXM XKXX TXRX HUVU XGXX WKWX XXSX BXJX TYXY STST HZXZ S1 X1 X2 X2 QXXX X3 V3 |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 4,522 |
Words | 851 |
Stanzas | 30 |
Stanza Lengths | 2, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
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"The Echo - based on the devastating effect of US invasion in Afghanistan" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 21 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/86567/the-echo---based-on-the-devastating-effect-of-us-invasion-in-afghanistan>.
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