A Poem by Supriya Kaur Dhaliwal

Norah Richards Marches with the Farmers to the Singhu Border

When a nightmare lands in a Google search box,
we rely on the Internet Gods to tell us

why what is already ours
could never be ours anymore.

While our virgin lands await habitation
by our new rural orders, we walk

wearing garments on our feet, polished by the dirt
we are proud to claim our alliance with.

Almost a century ago, I once boarded
the Lloyd Triestino ocean liner bound for Bombay

from Holland, and Bombay really felt much farther
than anywhere I had ever been.

But where we are today is a destination
where we always arrived whenever we wanted to set off

homeward.

Supriya Kaur Dhaliwal was born in Palampur, India. She was the 2021 Charles Wallace India Trust Fellow at the University of Kent. Supriya’s book, The Yak Dilemma, is out now with Makina Books.