All Washed Out

British poet Linda, inspired by Sindh’s beauty, wrote a poem when the 2010 floods ravaged the land of ancient Indus Civilization.  

“I gifted this poem to the people of Sindh who were the victims of floods” – Linda Bayley-Brown

All Washed Out

River no longer laps at my feet

It is now drowning out the street

No longer running crystal clear

Soil of ancients washed up here

***

Wet gritty fossil dust leaching

Far wide and quickly reaching

Every field barn loft and home

Making a watery sodden tomb

***

Running hard fast and scared

Stricken people unprepared

For this dank flowing sorrow

Some won’t live for tomorrow

***

Fathers, husbands and sons

Toiling to close all river runs

Feeling weary as they stride

To stem full dirty flowing tide

***

Farmers cry for drowning fields

Wave goodbye to feeding yields

Weeping mothers cradle babes

In their wet and darkened caves

Oh what has Mother Nature done!

Are we to struggle again alone?

Greater world you have a choice

To help us back to singing voice

***

Do not let your hearts forget

For it’s nowhere near over yet

Raging waters may now subside

But the aftermath’s a painful ride

***

As you go about your busy day

Please don’t forget us we pray

We didn’t deserve this nightmare

So show us please that you care

_______________

Linda Bayley-Brown, British poet, based in UK, had seen Sindh through the Facebook friendship with a poet Zaib Sindhi who used to share with her history and culture of Sindh. This poem which was translated by Sindhi writer and poet Hidayat Baloch and published in daily Kawish, a Sindhi newspaper. Linda Bayley-Brown shared her poem on Sindh when she was interviewed by rightesnowpak.com in 2011. The poem has been taken from her interview and republished by Sindh Courier, as Sindh has again been ravaged by torrential rains and flash floods.

Courtesy: Rights Now Pak (Published on February 18, 2011)