Who authorises homes and rites in this city? Each one who lives here has a right to this city! Equality under the law is just fiction– bulldozers show their masters’ might in this city. Landlords and agents act like sponges and thugs– private property? A blight on this city. The cops say, ‘with you, for you, always’– but we know: they’ll come for us, morning or night, in this city. Who reads alone in Tihar Jail? Umar Khalid! Behind the smoke, the moon is bright in this city. You ask me what it cost to give up my name– Nothing, and now I’m free to write in this city.
Ghazal Against Bulldozers
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