The Snow Girls

The battle lines were drawn up.
The snow girls with books in backpacks.
The olive green troopers with guns.

An eagle perched on a white cloud
relayed the proceedings to Times Now.
A snow leopard in distant mountains
stopped its hunt and waited.
Even a Yak in Tibet stopped its grazing
and looked towards the west.
A Bollywood film crew shooting a song
packed up and left.
The world grew still. The Dal lake grew still.
The waters in Jhelum paused.
In far away Kerala, people waited for the
channel debates to begin.

A hail of bullets mowed down the white harvest.
The olive green troopers advanced. They saw.
Each fallen girl held a red flower soaked in blood.
And a handkerchief on which was embroidered,
With Love from Kashmir.

( Disclaimer: This battle is entirely imaginary and has no resemblance to any event anywhere on this globe.)

 Ra Sh is a poet