Mainstream WeeklyOh Lordships!
We are all dealing with
our individual traumas,
pain and growth.
Stories emerge
from our tangled roots,
blossom forth and grow;
sediments slushed and slow
of many lands and travellers
makes the water flow
towards the ultimate ocean.
How then can the learned counsel claim
with utmost devotion,
that only a biological man and woman
must be the norm;
and everyone else be shorn,
of basic human rights,
to have a family,
dignity and some space?
Your lordships,
I cannot quite keep apace
with the terms:
lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer;
all too many categories
to treat humans like hunted deer.
Hear now a simple plea:
let everyone have their rights,
let them be free!
Simple terms like liberty
are turning extinct,
but remember it was India
that was distinct;
going beyond the Holocene,
a mingling of blood, sweat
and diverse genes,
to treat it as a singular sum
is obscene.
Do listen acutely to the low chord
of the golden oriole,
the haunting koel,
the shrill and raucous cry of the peacock;
must we all submit
to the Pied Piper’s insatiable drive
towards an obedient, bleating flock?
Sagari Chhabra
24th April ‘23