KITAAB

two countries of same colors

split

and over years 

the burden of sketched borders

fenced wires

torn jannat 

became so heavy

we needed our division justified 

we needed our partition glorified 

so we play the pretend game now

we go to war

we ask for each other’s heads

we bleed our soldiers 

and then we ask for proof 

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Bio

Vaishali Paliwal is an artist working on finding an expression to ‘the ultimate experiment’. Sometimes she does this with words. She aspires to build, break and rebuild all that art is to her. Currently she resides in Los Angeles where she works on her spiritual practice and writes poetry and short stories from her other worlds. Her poetry chapbook ‘Lion’s Tooth On Migrating Chests’ was recently published by The Soap Box Press. Some of her other published writing is in Gone Lawn, Platform Review, Genre Urban Arts, Peeking Cat, Eunoia review, Somnia Blue and Thirty West Publishing house. You can reach her at paliwalvaishali@gmail.com.