Seeking A Way | Sagari Chhabra

They walked into a meadow
blossoming with flowers,
asking tourists their religion;
separating them
they shot the newly-weds,
transmuting sindoor into blood
as the earth shrivelled
into a terrified flood,
of entrenched corpses.

The chinar trees bent and wept
as the pony man leapt
to save them, instead
he was shot in the head.
It’s their very intention
to turn the tide,
to have us slide
into a frenzy,
slit the throat of the neighbour;
we have gone down this road before
in yonder yore;
but may we summon reserves
to find a calm mind,
help us find,
the river’s way to the ocean;
amidst the sediment, slush and boulders,
it quickens forward,
holding all and everyone, within.

Sagari Chhabra
28 April ‘25