ILA Magazine
Where Culture Meets Creativity
Shafkat Aziz Hajam
I am a doleful story to read.
Although I was a healthy seed,
I was put into the soil
that was barely fertile.
I grew but fruitless,
Now I am thought to be a weed.
I am doleful story of a
withered ambrosial blossom
which grew in the soil with less fecundity.
Even that in no time, was
washed away by the unpropitious rain.
© Shafkat Aziz Hajam "Can't Move Past Thy Grave"
I can't move past thy grave O my dear son
My old and forgotten wounds become alive
Cause me unbearable pain
And near your grave I yearn to have one.
Thou abandoned me at my frail stage
Thou were my strength, light of the weak eyes
Now I am helplessly breathing in the dark cottage.
I am a baby now physically,
Can't move and stand on my own
Thou were my crutch now but left me unexpectedly soon.
I prefer death to breathing painfully now
Alas! There is no place for me to go
Where my wounds caused by thy demise would heal
Where the people my griefs would feel.
All are glum for their unfulfilled dreams
Or for having lost their valuables or the loved ones
So to me, only comfortable abode seems
A grave next to yours O my dear son.
I am bored in this mean world,
Alas! I find here many prepared to dig my grave,
But to look after me like own mother I find none.
If thou were alive, I would prefer more life to death
As thou were my blood, thou would be loyal to be
What I did for thee, thou might do for me
Under thy shadow I might take a breath
Of relief until the time of my death.
© Shafkat Aziz Hajam SHAFKAT AZIZ HAJAM is a children's poet from Kashmir in India. He is the author of two children's valued based poetry books titled "The Cuckoo's Voice" and "The Canary's Voice." He is writing one more poetry book for adults.
His poems have been published in local newspapers: 'Headlines Today' and 'Kashmir Reader' and in foreign anthologies: 'Wheel Song Anthology' (UK based), Prodigy Anthology (Greece) and Lit Light Anthology (Pakistan). He also writes limericks for children.