Blood in the valley

“Blood in the sacred Valley”- Blood on us We came as tourists, hearts so wide, With sandalwood and faith as guide; To Pahalgam, where rivers sing, We brought no sword, we wore no ring. Just saffron threads and folded hands, A hope to touch our sacred lands; But prayers were drowned by bullets’ cry, And mountains watched our children die. They struck from shadows, masked in hate, As if our birth could seal our fate; In name of God they claim, they kill, But what God drinks from blood that spills? The chadar fell, the bangles broke, The incense died beneath the smoke; And silence swallowed all our names, But not the memory, nor the flames. O brothers lost in sacred land, Your ashes mix with Kashmir’s sand. But from that dust, we rise and say, You did not fall in vain that day. O children lost, O mothers torn, O sacred blood, unjustly borne; You were not weak, you were betrayed, By silence, while the heavens swayed. But grief is not a chain, it’s flame, And fire remembers every name; We carry sorrow in our eyes, But in our hearts, the phoenix flies. This pain won’t pass, nor should it rest, For justice lives within the chest; Each tear a blade, each breath a vow, You struck us then, we rise up now. We are not stone, we break, we burn, But still we rise, and still return; For every soul they tried to take, Ten thousand more shall now awake. Kashmir, you cradle both our pain, And courage drawn from each bloodstain; We grieve, we rage, we will not bend, This fire within will never end. Written Apr 23, 2025 © Dr Upma A. Sharma Deeply touched by massacre of innocent Hindus in Pahalgam valley in Kashmir on apr 22, 2025 by Muslim terrorists