Demonetization or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Leader

How to love Narendra Modi in the time of demonetization

by Arjun Rajendran

The ATM queue outside my house stretches till the border. 
You’re a patriot at either end, closer to bullets,
or the machine acknowledging your demons with receipts.

Every day, you get to deposit 1/2 a nightmare, or a diary page.
The skydiver who drove me to work in his auto put his
herpes into a savings account. He quit jumping from

planes after he saw the earth as our leader’s face. A kitten
on the umbrella of the lady standing in line before me mews
that I shouldn’t worry. Press the button next to Yes

to print 1001 questions you were always afraid to ask
the pedophile. Or press No, if that’s what your silence meant. 
I kick the ATM. A soda tumbles out — let’s drink to the nation!

Arjun Rajendran is currently working on a chapbook about death row, counseling and alien abductions. He has poems forthcoming at Caesura and Strange Horizons.