IMPOSTERS

Nations that were legitimate
On one day
Turn illegitimate on the next
People who were brethren last evening
Becoming impostors on the next
The neighbour to whom
You do not know how to respond
Since the legal apparatus
Has defined him or her alien or unwanted
Procuring us for its own uses or abuses.

We are foreigners, all
To whom or why
And to what country or people
Is all that we do not still know.
The tomato in the kitchen garden
Te coconut palm
The ladies finger under the kitchen knife
The shoe flower next to the Guava tree
Are they locals, and good for all time
The squirrel investigates the custard apple-
Do we belong together?
Chameli looks out at Champa
On the swing in the sunset-
You too, my sun?