Age of Vice

by Deepti Kapoor

Not just pleasure, not really, more like the stanching of a wound, more like the holding of a tide, a sacrifice, negating the trauma of his birth.

The city is bad, they say, it’s full of con men, criminals, it’s ugly and dirty, it’s no good, only rich people do well, everyone else suffers.

“Fuck you,” she says. “You come here with your money and your big cars and think you can do anything you like, that you can order everyone around. You have your money, but you lost your culture.”