What’s left is a broken picture
weeks after Article 370 was revoked.
August 2019 – shikaras in Kashmir
tied to the shores, turning dry,
kites overhead looking for carrion;
a lone woman’s face in a houseboat window,
a baby’s scream chipped away by curfews.
In such silence, who will we be?
We thought, we’d never be without the 370,
without such privilege, that’s no one’s but ours –
without such code, bonded land, who will we be?