“Wounds”, a work in paint & embroidery on cloth by Rollie Mukherjee in tribute to the role of Kashmiri women in the struggle for azaadi.

HOME
Home, a small house in a
small town, I hear
that you have fallen cold
tonight. In your arms
autumn has frozen
stars to death.
From home to only desolate
hollow of an empty grave now,
your shiver has picked up
on poor
farmer’s house,
a blacksmith’s
house, sad
sad house, small and blue in
the night,
and made it shudder with
fear.
Your shingles no more
shine
like silver of the moon,
the tusks of your windows
are
breaking like ice on water. Your rivers
have ran dry. Your
predilection
for infinite love has wilted
away. Tonight,
In your silence I hear
motherless
children weep. I hear
that your pain has stirred
dead of our nameless
country. What cure
must I invent to
hold you together? What
prayer must I
say to not let you
fall apart ?

–poem by Omair Bhat