Fragrance of My Soil

For me

The clock had stopped

In the valley of Kashmir decades before.

Summers, Springs, Winters

Had changed their strings.

Cool breezes had changed 

Into cyclones of struggles.

Innocence faced new harsh tests.

Scorching heat from rocky fields

Had poured new spices in life.

Bruised skins oozing salty sweat

Had quenched the thirst.

Eyes quite wide

Burnt throughout the nights.

Ah! Innocent minds were clouded

Confused, faintly frozen too.

Today

Suddenly after decades

A wind aroused

From far off lands of my valley;

Travelling miles and miles,

Here it knocked my door.

I was struck dumb.

What had it for me?

Striking

Was the fragrance of the soil

Tempting the grains, the delicacies!

My mind wandered back in those fields.

Millions of my body pores

Red fluid in my veins

Had a heavenly bath.

I felt a new life within me.

Was it that I was reborn?

Though

I have mastered

The changed circumstances

Yet the fragrance of the soil

Pierced me with a new fashion.

For a while

I turned into a teenager

And dared to dream those vast lands

Waving fields, cool breezes

With fragrance of saffron and daffodils,

Flowing waters , vast blue expanse

Dense pine forests.

With the wings of hope

And compassion my heart and soul 

Flew  in free airs.

They say

The poison has washed out

From the air, those flowing waters.

The grass has turned green.

Dense forests resound 

The sounds of Nature.

New blossoms are blooming

With gentle dreams.

The new warmth is in the sun shine.

At this hour

I don't want to recollect

The pain, the hour when it began.

I believe in infinite future,

Enlightened mortals of flesh,

Conversion of lives,

As that is what in reality

Exists in this whole cosmos......