By Tabshir Ali

Flags perched on peaks of triumph
Names carved against the horizon
Testimonies of victories and anguish and fervor
Drenched with all the euphoria in the world

We gaze at the sacred mount
Blind to the footsteps the wind erased
Not questioning the remnants beneath
Not caressing the fractured memories

Beneath the mountain, beneath the praise
Lie the corpses of dreams, and yearning, and fate
Craving for a final breath
Still whispering with their abandoned devotion
Long after the spectators deemed them meager