-December 19, 2019
Though we had seen what
they’d done to the students,
something changed
that day in Delhi;
the police filled bus after bus
with people like us
who had come simply
to stand for our own rights
and for those of our neighbors.
Dropped on the edge of town,
hundreds returned to be taken again.
It is worse than we thought,
but I am fine now—
many have it much harder,
is what you told the children.
Later you showed me
the boot-sized, black bruises
on both of your legs
and confessed
you had cried while bathing.