Poem Submission by Ayman Parray

[Doctor Fab]

Ayman Parray, India
born in 1986 in Kashmir, India. I am interested in poetry and want to express myself through it.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Ayman Parray
Date: 2017-07-05 12:07 GMT+02:00
Subject: Ayman Parray Poem Submission
To: doctor fab

Hope my poem is up to mark. Thank you.
__________________________________

Terror

The Short Version

 

Let me tell you the short version of my life’s tale

My first fear was do well at school and never fail

I live in a place once long ago called paradise

No more such as everyday here someone dies

As I grew older so did grow all of my fears

For every one of them I have shed tears

I worked for human rights groups and interviewed victims

Consistent in many torture testimonies were shocks to scrotums

Once I was abused by authority that looked like a boar

I call him that now as that day he called me a son of a whore

There were many such incidents that I had to ignore

Like being slapped at a checkpoint because I was probably a bore

But how can I ignore the fact that living in the land of meadows

To breathe free air is like chasing distant disappearing shadows

Sometimes I feel my life is that of an insect hiding under a rug

And that I will be soon crushed by the boot like one does a bug

They still call it paradise but it is a void, an empty space

A prison of the body, mind, spirit and on earth the darkest place

I know that all earthlings live on borrowed time

But what good my life when living itself is a crime

Once here, heaven in natural surroundings you will see

The children of conflict you will find in chains as none are born free

I am tired of living in terror breathing short gasps of air

Every day of my life a new threat and every hour a scare

Once long ago a country of saints this land of green meadows

Is now nothing more than a blood soaked conflict zone of orphans and widows

I now in my thirties have no hope and I will neither marry nor father sons

I don’t want to raise a family in the terror of hundreds of thousands of guns

 

Ayman Parray © 2017

All Rights Reserved

[Richard Deodati]

A rhyming autobiographical poem by Ayman Parray tells of her lifelong struggle since childhood of where she grew up; a place called Paradise, but that has since descended into a living hell as a result of war and terrorism. She writes, "To breath free air is like chasing distant disappearing shadows" and that has inevitably made her come to the very sad conclusion, "I will neither marry nor sire sons" "I don’t want to raise a family in the terror of hundreds of thousands of guns." Thank You for your very eloquent but sad, tearful poem, Ayman!

[Ayman Parray]

I have made a small change in the poem changed the word "sire" to "father" in the second last line. I hope it is not too late and you will take the change into consideration. Thank you