Notes from just over two weeks in Kashmir

Alana Hunt, 2009

Below is a brief excerpt of this piece of writing - the full text can be downloaded in pdf format here.

I

Still,
13 hours by road from Kashmir,
and a sign reads

(Back home, from the dictionary, I learn the word artillery is specifically used to describe large-caliber guns used in warfare on land, and so I come back to the sign again

Still,
13 hours by road from Kashmir,
and things are heating
while the weather cools.

13 hours by road from Kashmir,
and according to the military
‘God’ is a plural

Further on another sign,

And as we come closer still,

I try to understand these words,

Suddenly I spot a few
(three or four)
lone
stone
graves on a mountain side.

Grass now appears like comfortable carpet on the forest floor as it all becomes greener and denser.
But at the same time the density of men in green uniforms thickens,
just like the pine trees seem to.

And here at last a solid sign greets us,
personally, perhaps

Before I can think
just below
in neon
red
flashing lights
another sign quickly passes

My eyes widen, we come into the darkened tunnel
and our entry into the Vale of Kashmir is sealed.