(on the narrative of how a single act of violence on republic day by a few hundred supposedly undoes the entire protest which saw millions of farmers peacefully protest for months. pardon the didactic tone of the poem)

how quick are some to tell the oppressed how

to be oppressed correctly rather than telling

the oppressors not to oppress // to the suddenly

woke, widen your gaze / the clips are called viral

for a reason, they milk a narrative contagion

festered inside echo-chambers in this our age

of excess // undyed in a collective tinge, a flag

is just colored cloth // who has the copyright to

culture or the patent to patriotism / the fragile

snowflakes who think everything they touch is

sacred for the whole snowfall will be stirred

again by the next Modicum of false warmth //

do not heed the bheed breeding a fake bleeding

glory in a parade of whims / the swords are

nothing for the sword-swallowers other than

thorns to be planted in the crowd's aching foot //

I'm choked by the python of time to the point

I realize I'm the same temporal species & the

world a nest of coiled inter-choking serpents

chasing their tails while being swept forward

in the river, rotating & revolving, hamster-wheels

being transported on an one-way road cycling on

a straight path // how long can one cling to the

fleeting before it slips away, turning life to a

repentant mourning / widen your gaze to see

our liberating insignificance, eterni-tying us

together in kind transience 

~Ajay
29/1/2021