Graveyard Poem by Dipro Azad

Winter was almost here,
Wind that blew down
From east mountains was ceaseless
And cold as the pangs of death;
Leaves from last spring
Squeezed, lying beneath skinny trees;
I saw it all,
As decades came and went,
My sons, bathed in peace,
With faith in their hearts,
And songs in their lips,
I saw it all;
Poets from far roamed in free
As their ink smiled with hope,
Lovers came too, with holding hands-
Souls lightened up with promise,
And of passion, of future,
The fathers and the farmers alike
And I saw them all.
Then came one morn
The metal vultures,
Swooping down from west horizon
Came with lead talons,
Came with napalm breaths,
And when they left
All the joys, all the laughs
Left with them.
I harbored all the still faces,
And the voices, but no cries,
As I had done many times past,
Mothers, sons and the future,
Welcomed all in sullen embraces.
Not a life walked my breast,
Not a stranger halted for rest,
I sighed and waited
For the fire to expire,
The wind to play again,
The mountains to believe tall,
The sky to rain new hope,
But afraid, all was gone.
In the cry of boots and guns
That followed the death shells,
No one saw what got lost,
Which dreams got burnt
Or what the strife would cost,
But I saw it all;
Too dark to bear, none to share,
I stood amid time and recalled,
The hatred behind the carbines
Never blinked, never sighed,
Juggled with lives, and made sure
That even the graveyard had died.