Defy

by Purabi Bhattacharya / July 26th, 2026

Smog settles over the ruins of pride, leaving widows to comb through blood steeped, sooty
thoroughfares. Scavenge. Sell flesh, sell hide, sell the shattered soul: you are alive.
Run some water over your skin, rinse away the debris, your little ones rest under the earth’s dermis.
The air turns stoic, the bone-dry Sabarmati flounders, wont to watch the world ferrying grief
to the pyres. Yet, in the very wreckage, a stubborn green shoot breaks through the dust,
defying the empty starched sky.

Purabi Bhattacharya is a writer, a poet, a book and film reviewer from Shillong in North East India. She lives and works in Gujarat at present, teaching undergraduate students. She has four published collections of poems to her credit. Her work has been featured in The People's Archive of Rural India (PARI), Parcham Online, LiveWire, the International Human Rights Art Festival 2023, The Little Journal of North East India, The Lake and And Other Poems, among other literary platforms.  Read other articles by Purabi, or visit Purabi's website.

This article was posted on Sunday, July 26th, 2026 at 8:00am and is filed under Poetry.