August 1, 2016

A Poem by Ananya S. Guha: "Children (After Kashmir)"

Ananya S Guha lives in Shillong in North East India. He has been writing his poetry for over thirty years. He has four collections of poetry and has been published in numerous magazines, journals, and anthologies in India and abroad. He is a senior academic in India's Indira Gandhi National Open University.


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Children (After Kashmir)


Close in the barracks
they are pelting bullets
not stones
take the women away
they are pelting bullets
not stones
arm the men
they are pelting bullets
not stones
tell the children to remain inside
so that they do
not become blind
pelt stones.
Children love to play.



Note: This poem was written after reading a recent newspaper report that a 14-year-old girl in a village near Srinagar became blind after shot by a gun pellet. The doctors said that they could save her life, but not her eyes. About forty five people have been injured in the Kashmir because of the government's decision to use gun pellets to control protesters.  According to news reports, many children, some as young as four and five years old, were wounded by pellets while watching protests from their homes.

Ananya S. Guha




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