by Huma Dar
July 13, 2013
for Naheed Shah-Sheikh
in conversation with the attached photograph by an anonymous photographer…

In my homeland
beloveds are planted as seeds
singly, or in mass
23, 54, 77, 131…
(each madness has its method —
each massacre its algorithm)
marked, unmarked, empty graves
or those packed like sardines
in football fields where children once played
or open meadows where people once prayed.
In my homeland
the bodies of my martyrs
even in death
are deemed seditious,
dangerous, explosive. Continue reading “Thinking of Spring in Summer: Martyrs’ Day in Kashmir”