Dilli Pulis: Two movements (December 21, 2019)

At Mandir Marg police station, I saw,
as I stepped off a private bus spilling
with young anti-CAA protestors,
the oiled moustache
of a havaldar waiting for the student
whose tremulous gait cradles his fear.
His eyes gleam with the flower
of defiance, his lips atremble
with hope, and impertinence.

A smile quietly makes its home
in his eyes, as he turns to me-

“It’s my first time”

— A few kilometres away
in another cage,

Outside Daryaganj police station,
on the darkest night of this winter yet,
an orange nucleus of fire,
a piece broken from the sickled
moon, began to smart, and sputter,
now red, carved
into the palm of a tailor.

The night lay writhing,
ablaze in his eyes as he
stepped out of the police station
after a 7 hour rendezvous with
pain –

“It’s my first time”

On 20/12/2019, many underprivileged young Muslim men were taken into police custody at Daryaganj Police station, Delhi, from around Jama Masjid. They were kept in the police station overnight. Articles that refer to this event.
Anti-CAA protests: 15 arrested in connection with Delhi’s Daryaganj violence
CAA: From Daryaganj to ITO, the protest night that was
*The title and form is a tangential reference to A. K. Ramanujan’s ‘Madura: Two Movements’