Hands up.
Tell me.
Tell me your name.
You look like a Muslim
in that pathani
and the long beard
hanging from your face
confirms that.
Why are you carrying the virus
in your terrorist bodies?
I am not carrying it.
What are you saying sir?
Who will believe you?
You are a bio terrorist.
I will shoot you
and the gallantry medal is mine.
Reporters will sing my glory.
Newspapers will print my photograph
on their front pages
and I will be a nationalist hero
with a government bullet.
Who will believe you
Muslim man?
Next morning
the reporter sang
the newspaper printed
and a body was sent
for postmortem.
Sutputra Radheye is a poet and commentator from Assam. He has written on cultural and political issues for several publications, such as Frontier, Countercurrents, Janata Weekly, and Culture Matters.
Featured image from Flickr.
