My Island

I was born by the mighty riverside
By the garden of orchid blooms
And grew up at the foot of a mountain
Near a lake dressed in misty looms

I danced in the monsoon showers
And played with the wind and sun
The mountain would hug and kiss me
Whenever to its rocky bosom I run

A silent city in the valley below
Its streets full of smiling faces
Hustling with unassuming romance;
Made memories with eternal traces

I dream of the grand old chapel
That floats on tall granite towers
Her walls draping with the murals
Of humanity and its divine powers

Fond memories of a magical childhood
That taught us of happiness and strife
It would make from total strangers
An abundance of good friends for life

Leaving my home in the mountains
I flew across the oceans with pride
To learn lessons that made me discover
Wonderful secrets with every stride

Yet my spirit still lingers in paradise
With the smiles that I left behind
In my dreams I cross the oceans
Hidden memories in time to find

Now dreams are drowned by bugles
Great rivers are swelling with tears
The distant rhythms of a war march
Had traded those smiles for old fears

My mind was suppressed by a helmet
Free thoughts held back in behest
They said my heart won’t be broken
As it was protected by a Kevlar vest

My comrades and friends lay dying
But a qualm their minds would smother
The land for which they had died for
Was it the lap of their weeping mother?

The moon made a wish for our nation
That fell from the sky like a star
A white dove flew in from the horizon
And we celebrated the end of a war