All My Friends Are Fictional’s Reviews > If They Come for Us > Status Update

„my people my people I can't be lost
when I see you my compass
is brown & gold & blood
[…]

my country is made
in my people's image
if they come for you they
come for me too in the dead
of winter […]

our names this country's wood
for the fire my people my people
the long years we've survived the long
years yet to come I see you map
my sky the light your lantern long
ahead & I follow I follow“

It wasn't long before we started decorating the gazebo
with fake foliage. Painted leaves stapled to stem,
roses that never wilted. Actual flowers were expensive
& only for funerals. We had too many funerals to waste
flowers. But we loved our story: the gazebo
that dared to live on concrete. The plastic petals.
Always red. Always bright. Never in need of water.“

[Target Audience]
„Everyone wants Kashmir but no one wants Kashmiris.
Aren't I a miracle? A seed that survived the slaughter & slaughters
to come. I think I believe in freedom I just don't know where it is.
I think I believe in home, I just don't know where to look.“

„I wish them a mundane life.
[…]

Loneliness in a bookstore. Gold chapals.
Red kurtas. Walking home, sun

at their backs. Searching the street
for a missing glove. Nothing glorious.

A life. Alive. I promise.

I didn't know I needed to worry
about them
until they were gone.“