Welcome, Junior Chilla Poem by Mohammad Younus

Welcome, Junior Chilla,
Do not tell me,
'you have not come to receive Me.'
I see neither your father before you,
Nor can I say if I shall ever greet your child.

I stand far from our shared soil,
A wanderer beyond the embrace of our homeland.
Kashmir—my beloved, my sorrow, my longing—
A land etched in my breath, though I no longer walk its hills.

Yet, tell me, do you still hear the whispers of the Chinars?
Do the rivers still murmur the songs of our ancestors?
Does the wind still carry the fragrance of saffron fields,
Or has time woven silence where voices once bloomed?

Welcome, Junior Chilla and your baby to be born,
Bearer of the message of freedom, keeper of echoes—
You arrive, after Chillia Kalaan,
Yet I wonder,
Do you still herald the coming of spring,
Or has spring become the dominion of our aliens?

MyKoul