A Thousand Miles Away Poem by Mariam Taufeeq

The crickets indulge in nocturnal melody
And the wind seems to be murmuring secrets;
And the world is still and at peace.
But somewhere, out there, far from here,
Lingering remnants of war, ashes and abhorrence
Play havoc with the hearts of the innocent.
Their homes are mere shells, and the night
Is cold, and forbidding, and dark.
The air reeks of betrayal and treachery
Two-faced horrors fuel diminishing dreams…
A crimson carpet has covered their beloved land;
And people search in vain, moan in vain….
Despair in vain for their loved ones.
Oh, their lives have become overcast by a cloud!
A cloud of indigence, and lawlessness, and crime!
The air echoes of miserable cries!
And the flood from their heart-trodden eyes never dries!
Those sudden bangs, and shrieks and yells
Are unheard a thousand miles away.
The trees lie withered and bleak.
And the moon has lost its glow;
And the world is a cage.
Oh, but that is the scene out there.
That is the tragedy far from here.
That is the truth that people do not know.
Those people a thousand miles away.
A thousand miles away from this suffocating sorrow.
A thousand miles away from this vulture-black darkness
That has swooped down unto the hearts of these people,
Until they succumb to their wounds, and the pain that is brought
Only by the calamity they call 'war.'
But that is far from here; that is the scene out there.
For their cries are unheard.
Unheard a thousand miles away.
A thousand miles away from this despair, and wretchedness,
This world is another world, a world of moonlight
Where people sleep sound and unknowing.
Not knowing of the blighted hopes,
Not knowing of the shattered futures.
The worst pain is brought by ignorance,
The ignorance of a brother.
A brother a thousand miles away…..