The Mapmaker’s Regret

Written by: Muskaan Kaushik

GD by: Jiyaa P Shah

I could only see the obedience of my pen

The river of ink, soaking the parchment

Harmless right?

I did not hear the villages split

The screams of the girl who just woke up

Couldn’t find her mother

In the neat lines I created

The borders were merely lines,

Forgettable and thin

How come the girl remembers each cut

Every field divided

Decorated with weeds now,

Instead of wheat

In the name of symmetry

I made centuries collapse

Now my hand is stained with ink

Or shall I say blood

My pen, still obedient

When I am not