Border- Sumita Doodraj Bura

Sumita

A lone child looks across green meadows,

Hoping to find some playmates,

He then sees some children,

Playing under a tree,

He slowly approaches the bunch,

Hoping to get their company

Curious faces smile at him,

And they are friends,

They run across the grassy land,

Till the sun bids adieu 

One morning the child 

stares in disbelief ,

When he sees a wire fence being built,

that separates his playmates and him,

He looks helplessly around,

NO ONE gives him an answer,

NO ONE cares 

His playmates try to come closer,

They hold hands across the barbed wire,

They too have questions to ask,

But no one bothers to reply

The children across the fence,

meet every day,

But the child on this side of the fence,

Is lonelier than ever,

They just talk across the wire fencing,

But they can't hold hands to console

On a dull afternoon, the lonely child,

Runs towards the fencing,

where he sees hundreds of soldiers,

setting gunny bags full of sand,

Their guns shining,

Their boots making a thumping sound

He can see his little friends,

Across the barbed wire,

Crouched in fear

with the turn of events around

Soon the child is pushed away,

Ordered to run to his safe abode,

He feels helpless and just drags his feet,

with questions aloud

And a feeling of despair

When he turns around,

there is smoke all around,

The guns are fired

And the bombs explode

Terrified, the child runs to his father,

And is breathless for few moments,

Then he asks about the happenings around

which do not make any sense to him

His father replies :

There is a war between the enemies,

The BORDER is built,

The enemies have to be taught a lesson

The child cannot make any sense of it,

He does not remember having seen any enemy,

He had seen humans like his own people,

How can they be ENEMIES?

How can they be just killed ?

He runs towards the fence,

Then some splinters pierce his shin,

He is shocked but feels no pain,

As the word BORDER,

Echoes in his ears time and again

(Studied in Govt college Dharmsala,H.P.Literary Interests :Composing poems in English, HindiS pecially writing couplets in Hindi on various subjects.T ranslation work from English to hindi, Hindi to English,Nepali to Hindi.Writing articles for souveniers from time to time.)