Listen to the world’s best poetry read out loud.

A nation you thought you knew, 

from Ashoka to Buddha to Gandhi to Nehru 

in a single decade unravels into  

Muslim, Christian, Hindu, 

unholy trinity of saffron, green and blue, 

on a field of British white. 

My girlfriend’s Chinese, my baby mama’s a Jew, 

my husband’s red, white and blue. 

When we’re out on the toot 

in Chikmagalur, Diu and Kathmandu, 

there’s no jealousy or rue. 

We try to eat right. 

We like our new brew. 

We float past our differences and accrue 

credit for the next Bardo. (Our karmic due!) 

Either way, it’s true: 

We’re dead if we don’t and dead if we do. 

Got a light?