I am not barren

I am not barren.
My fecundity has not dwindled yet.
Enough as before to bring forth blossoms of all sorts and I do.
Alas! Frequent invasions of atrocious autumn
Debilitates their potency to bloom in full
To show my greatness in their daintiness and redolence
That would once captivate aves from overseas
To warble in praise of my nature.
O God! Free me from this brutish autumn,
Can’t endure it any more.
To glitter with my flair
Let clement spring reign over me.

Don’t avert thy gaze

Don’t avert thy gaze, behold these cemeteries!
The voices for peace and averse to slavery
Are interred here.
The eyes anti to tyranny and the altruistic hearts
For the persecuted are interred here.
Don’t avert thy gaze, behold these cemeteries!
The buttresses for the decrepit and the comforts for the pained,
The joys for the dejected and the glims for darkness are interred here.
Don’t avert thy gaze, behold these cemeteries!
The gallant patriots of my nation- moral for the coward Slaves
The upshots of the tyrannous reign and even of the traitors are interred here.

How to fulfil dreams there?

How to fulfil dreams there
Where one often takes breath in the net of fear of disappearance and of death
And where one carries more coffins but palanquins few.
Not many raiments for weddings
But more shrouds one has to sew.
How to fulfil dreams there
Where each moment is spent in jails and yowls
And youths decay in dingy jails.
Where one while fishing, fishes out a corpse
Of a mother’s only progeny and succour
Beheaded or mutilated or putrefied
Or still from his wounds, is dripping blood of innocence.
How to fulfil dreams there
Where one’s childhood is caged, divested of its joys
Where deranged mothers (as if their sons) are lullabying toys.

Shafkat Aziz Hajam is a poet from Kashmir, India. He is the author of two children’s poetry books, The cuckoo’s voice, and The canary’s voice. His poems have appeared in international magazines and anthologies like Wheel song anthology (UK based), Prodigy, digital literary magazine USA, PLOTS CREATIVES online literary magazine USA, Inner Child Press International USA, AZAHAR anthology in Spain, SAARC anthology, Litlight literary magazine Pakistan etc. He has also written more than a hundred funny limericks for the children and adults’ poetry book, The Unknown Wounded Heart.