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 FrontierCountercurrentsJanata Weekly, and Culture Matters.

Featured image from Flickr.