Helmand, how calm you flow

Sitting on the banks of the Helmand,
swept by thoughts,
I watch as time flows in its currents.
It bends and twists to the embrace of centuries,
holding in its chest an eternity of stories.

Helmand,
I ask you in the language of the heart:
Do you recall the cruelties of your time?
You know well what's happened at your edges.
You listened as angry skies grumbled
and death rained down with bullets.
You watched blood flow with your waves
as hangmen discarded martyred bodies.
And you witnessed those who looted
the nomad girls' nose rings:
All in the name of the great lord.