The leafless chinar

In the shade of chinar tree
Like two birds who had flown over a sea
The boy and the girl gathered quiet
Drenched softly by the fading twilight,
The girl coy and a bit terrified
By shrill buzz of gunshots bright
Whispered her fear and longing too
To her man, her hope, her beau,

'Don't you anymore join those men
Who are fighting for years and dying in vain'
The girl with tears in her hazel eyes
Pleaded to the boy with whom she has ties
Of love and hope and all those little things
Which amidst despair only joy to her bring,

'I know how much you are worried about me
But as long as there  is this chinar tree
We will come here every evening , dear,
Why those gunshots you falsely fear?'
The boy told the girl putting his palms on her cheek
As the evening slowly turned dark and bleak,

Suddenly they found some shadowy figures
Circled around them with fingers upon triggers
' Who are you? What are you here doing?
Don't you know there's a curfew this evening?'
A man from the group shouted in a voice gruff
His face looked poke marked and remorseless , tough,

The girl shuddered and was about to cry
The boy was thinking of  a fitting reply,
He searched for the pin under his vest
Unhooking which he could put all to rest,
' Run away , you, my dear, my life...'
Saying this he pushed the girl and made a dive
At the man who few moments ago made the query,
A blast deafened all and in the dust all got buried;

The girl who was pushed away to a safer side
Soon after the dust settled found how the blinding light
Had taken away all including her man,
Strewn like unrecognizable parts upon the land,

The girl shouted in horror and grief
Under the chinar tree without a leaf,

Many years after the incident the tree
Remained standing  leafless like a forbidden memory.