Artwork created by children at the Peace Service Center of Nepal.
The misty mountains on a blue morning
So close yet so distant,
Silent sentinels of a peaceful world —
A world that collapsed.
They watched their lives crumble
As Earth took her revenge —
Their horror-struck eyes a witness to
Eons destroyed in an instant.
The mighty tower cracked and crashed
In a ruined river of broken bricks —
Memories of a thousand years
Lost forever in a flicker of time.
Fissured roads pulled apart
Opening up abysmal chasms;
Trapped in suffocating darkness
Death stepped by the minute.
A mighty quake, an unknown force,
A nation vanquished.
Still the spirit indomitable,
The only thing that would not break.
Brick by brick their world
Devastated into debris —
Brick by brick their world
They restored and revived.
Far away, in a distant world
Life goes on; indifferent spectators
Crowd around the television sets, curiously
Marveling at the strength, the power to survive.
This poem is dedicated to the earthquake survivors of Nepal. Nepal was hit by a massive earthquake in April 2015, which resulted in mass destruction and death.
Born in Kolkata, India, in 1999, Sunwrita Dastidar studies in Class X at the Modern High School for Girls. Creative writing is her passion, and reading is her favorite pastime.
