Saffron Lies

Vasvi Gupta

I’ve grown up in a world obsessed with geometry:

Lines growing, 

proliferating,

marking us 

as Different from one another.

The railroads on my palms

rail to protect

every home

every place of worship

every threatening piece of brick and mortar

that they try breaking.

There are precipices

on my skin.

An entire

civilisation is falling.

This piece was written as a response to the police brutality that took place in Jawaharlal Nehru University in India in 2020.