Now we knowDon’t we?What genocide looks like
Now we can imagineCan’t we?The plight of the CongoleseUnder Leopold…The Trail of TearsOf the Native Americans…The Bengal FamineCreated by Churchill and co….The…
They think thatKillingKilling HaniyehKilling NasrallahKilling SinwarKilling men, women, childrenIndiscriminatelyThey think thatKillingIs the solution to the problem:More fools they.
You can chooseNot to read this poemI could have chosenNot to write it
You and I can chooseNot to look atImages ofBurning bodiesBut Mohammed al-DalouDid not have a choice:He had to try to rescueHis…
Travelling a couple of hundred milesTo a friend’s sixtieth birthday partyEntailed time-travelForty years into the past
When we moved housesFrom Chembur to ColabaThe do-sar-wala janvarWas heartbrokenAnd head-separated
Tell me, honestly:When you got a callYesterdayOn your cell phoneDidn’t you pull it outOf your pocketEven before the first ringPlace it a little distance awaySquint to read who is callingAnd thenWith an inward shrugOf reliefTake the call?Thinking to yourselfCell phones don’t kill…
From smallpox blanketsTo exploding pagersTechnologyThe handmaiden ofGenocide
This hotshot Israeli engineerThis top-of-the-classThis teacher’s petDoes he think thatThis operation he devisedWill be his alone?Won’t be reverse-engineered?Won’t be copycatted?
On those rare occasionsWhen Appa came home earlyWe, my sister and IWould walk down to The Gateway of IndiaWith himIn the evening
Running down the slopeTo the roadWith a whistleSmall and plasticTo hailThe raddiwala pick-upBefore he zoomed pastI was reminded ofA different whistle inA different age