I am a patriot

Aishwarya Vardhana
1 min readAug 19, 2017

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I have a home in India.
She welcomes me as her own.

Summer after summer
I returned to the warm crook of her arm.
When she first heard
the accented assault of my English,
she did not drop me in surprise,
but instead held me closer
and filled my days and nights
with familiar, lilting lullabies.
I imagine she would let me stay forever if I wanted,
but lullabies are for children
who are afraid of the dark.
What do we sing for adults
who see darkness in their waking day?
What tune moves with melody strong enough,
to carry us far enough,
to worlds blue enough
to water all our ungrown seeds.
I am now old enough to see
all the blue that separates me from her,
all the red that separates them from me,
and all the white that is asking us to choose.
Into a new day my mind awakens and I ask myself,
“what if I am responsible for this country as well?”
What if I were a patriot in both?
And if I am this country’s patriot,
what war is it asking me to fight,
and what wickedness and weakness is stitched into my uniform?

--

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Aishwarya Vardhana
Aishwarya Vardhana

Written by Aishwarya Vardhana

Artist, designer, and writer. Decoloniality, art, design, and technology. IG: @shweeze

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