Coloured Roofs

By Sutputra Radheye

COLOURED ROOFS

a storm visited the area yesterday


all the houses were roofless

as the tins were blown away

to the fields 


the people

hid under anything they could find

in their moment of desperation


the next day, the officials came

for inspection of the area



they marked the houses

by the colour of the roof

saffron-- fifty nine

green-- forty


one month later

all the saffron roofed houses

got a message on their phones


“Your bank account xxyyzzzz have been credited 

with 50,000 only”


whereas the green roofs

just imagined what it would be like

to live in a saffron roofed house.

Sutputra Radheye is a young poet from India. He has published two poetry collections — Worshipping Bodies (Notion Press) and Inqalaab on the Walls (Delhi Poetry Slam). His works are reflective of the society he lives in and tries to capture the marginalised side of the story.

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