Beastly (Like Our Own American) Jhuggis*
My last time in Delhi, I was honored
To be taken through a miles-long
Well as miles-wide encampment
For folks without homes…
In fact they built upbeat community
Which was safe stable affordable
And seemingly permanent
For local urban unhoused
But now new pols tore it all down
Created an appalling revanchist
Settlement wreaked havoc on
Electricity/water/food sources
While instead hounding poor peeps
Sympathetic citizens characterise
As those so neglected “don’t live
Rather at best merely exist”:
In my personal experience offering
Otherwise realistically-unavailable
Medical care to disenfranchised
Fellow human beings — many
Of whom were just released from
Carceral settings plus or minus
Have some underlying mental
Or substance health issues–
End up dying 25% earlier than “rest of us.”
*term of art for slums in India