The starlit sky is now quite aloof

the moon too is nowhere to be seen.

Ah! My dad entraped my fears and regrets

“O! The sky is so cloudy, the moon has hid somewhere

the stars too are scared to come out lest it may rain

lest it may saturate their gleam.”

I smile and smile, but see! My heart cries

for I know my eyes have turned blind

and everything is hazy and gloomy.

The umbrous brightness within me wails

But I have to live and live and live.

The eyes that envisioned you

holding a candle in your hand

and trying to fix that imperfect canvas

painted by my feeble and unskilled hands,

the eyes that would behold you

smiling anxiously at me while I waved a bye

from the window of my school bus,

the eyes that loved to espy you

being on work, a stern look on your bossy face,

Ah! Those eyes are blind now,

with nothing to see just darkness.

The eyes just perceive nothing, but darkness.

                                                                                                        ~ Shah Bisma Manzoor

                                                                                                                                                                Anantnag, India