sweet leaks out the droning walls / call it a hard-knocks monastery / call it Ghandi split and shackled / call it honey  in a bitter built hive

These are columbuses who use the same tactics as against / the Taínos, kill us with disease, this time as capitalism, debt, the lack, / to steal land for their leisure. How the devil delights in playing on our bones.

In the backyard, / like burying cacti into the earth, / she buried her letters / next to earthworm cocoons.

Aamukta Reddy is a visual designer and model based in Bangalore. She is a graduate of the National Institute of Fashion Technology, and has work appeared in Vogue India and Grazia India, among others.