What Happened to Us? (Poem)

What happened to us?
The moonlight of hope
Has faded away.
Only shadows remain.

Where are the fields—
Green, alive,
Dancing in wind?

The streams are silent,
Their songs dried up.
The beauty we knew
Has vanished like mist.

Even the rain
Turned its face.
I watched with tears—
No spring this year.

No flowers bloomed,
No love dropped down.

Where are the hills
That breathed cool wind?
Now they lie flat—
Carried in trucks,
Sold as soil.

What happened to us?

The sun burns strong.
Our hearts lie bare,
Like land without rain.

I once stood proud
Under blue sky.
Now dark clouds
Close my eyes.

Is our light fading?
Are we the wilted leaf,
The falling petal?

What happened to us?

I don’t know.

-Jafar Sadik (2010)