MOTHER WRITES
TO THE LION OF KASHMIR
SHEIKH MOHAMMED ABDULLAH
They tell me
you are buried
on the banks of Naseem
near the Hazratbal shrine,
your tomb heavily guarded
by India’s army.
I tell them
this represents
one of those ironies
history keeps throwing up:
the very people who jailed
you now guard your tomb
And the very people
whose ‘Lion’ you were
are disenchanted
with you for selling out
to your paymasters in Delhi
who now also bankroll
your son and his son,
sexually-transmitted dynasts,
who dare not even sigh
while soldiers shielded by
the Syrupy Secularism Act
silence the Vale of Saints.
By Rafiq Kathwari, Winner of the Patrick Kavanagh Poetry Award 2013. More poems here.