Poem: The Great Indian Illegitimate Bird

She corrupted him.
Once, when he was talking of birds,
thumbing Nat Geo, her sleepiness
caused her to hear
Great Indian BastardActually of course the Great Indian Bustard. That’s what I heard the first time I heard of this bird..

Rising patriotism.
Only here, could we have named
a large bird after illegitimacy.
He did not know
what that meant.

He looked it up.
At night, in his father’s library
a golden red book called a
dictionary. Why did
she say that?

Perhaps she thought
that all of Kashmir was like that
Rushdie’s. Or maybe his
white skin dazzled the
girl’s little brain.

They discovered this
secret bird. He remembered only this
of his friend. Traveling on
Himsagar, from Kanyakumari
to Jammu, almost Kashmir.