Catalina: Love Jihad

Saw an orange macaw, this noon –

green tail. My mother excitedly muttered

“it is a sign… It is a sign. It is a sign!

Sound the conch shell, they will win 

‘love-jihad’ shall perish, gone with the wind!

No more conversion. It is a sign.”

Little does she know Catalina.

My mother celebrated sighting of a hybrid bird –

and took it as a sign for love to ward.

“Let there be love even in the midst of revolution,

as you set up barricades, more orange macaws

with green tail, generations shall dodge bullets

as it turns into a thornless rose.”