The Echo That Refused to Fade : Syed Sakish Bukhari

The Echo That Refused to Fade

Syed Sakish Bukhari 

When cruel decree did steal his dawn too soon,

And hushed the lullabies beneath the moon,

A child stood still where warmth had turned to stone,

And learnt, too young, the weight of being alone.

He saw small hands in fathers’ fingers tied,

While his hung loose, with no one by his side,

Each passing glance became a silent dart,

That carved its grief in chambers of his heart.

He wept in nights where none could hear his plea,

Yet smiled by day for all his kin to see,

He held their pain and buried deep his own,

And wore a strength no child had ever known.

Through scornful streets and seasons harsh and grim,

The world seemed vast, yet none belonged to him,

Still step by step, through trials dark and long,

He shaped his wounds into a will made strong.

Now twenty-nine, his name in shadows gleams,

A fragile crown upon his quiet dreams,

For though the world may whisper praise and light,

His soul still walks with echoes of the night.

Yet from such depths where broken spirits start,

There rises steel within a tender heart,

For he who bore the storm and did not fall,

May yet outgrow the pain that shaped it all.

(Syed Sakish Bukhari is a poet, educator, author, and researcher from Sogam Lolab, Kupwara, J&K. He has authored multiple books and contributed to academic research, focusing on contemporary education and pedagogy.)