Goodbye, Dear Delhi

Goodbye, dear Delhi

Before you rape me;
I came here with dreams of life
Now I dream only about butterflies
about white ibises, about AK47s.

Your homeless people put me off
Your beautiful houses and big cars put me off
Your uninspiring landscapes put me off;
Now I don’t want to see anything, anyone, anymore.

It’s hard to say goodbye
Let me drink all the whisky from NFC
Let me smoke all the weeds from Taimoor Nagar
Let me puke away all the goodbye blues.

I would like to go to Switzerland
To see how true your maker had said of our land
Alas, I’m only going back to my land
To see what I have missed all along.

I’m a stranger in my own country
Let me be yours, cover me in your misery;
Tomorrow we never know
Time might heal the pain.

Before you molest me
Before your summer consumes me
Before your winter freezes me.
Goodbye, goodbye, Delhi.

Original image by Anne Thingnam