The Day of Light

By Sanjaya Manandhar (Manjeel)

How happy all the people are—
Rushing, jumping, running, shouting, dancing!
They’re feeling like cotton,
Flying like a bird in the air;
Their feet nowhere on the ground.
Noses touch the sky;
The chests expand like high mountain;
The bodies swell like
The neck of a duck.
They are imagining themselves
A beautiful lady
With high-heeled pointed shoes.
They’re thinking themselves king
Newly ascended on a sophisticated high throne.

They’re no more ragged old monkeys;
They’re no more street dogs;
No more torn beggars with tears;
No more candles and kerosene lamps.

Now,
They’re electric bulbs
Brightly lit by electricity
Because they are getting electricity,
No load-shedding today.

They’re, today, celebrating
The day of light:
A load-shedding free day.
Today is the day of freedom
For them.

One of them comes out of the crowd and says,
“Let’s celebrate today as
The day of light happily,
Because from tomorrow again we will be
Street dogs, old ragged monkeys, beggars,
Candles and kerosene lamps!”

[Manandhar is a Nepali poet form Chandragiri-9, Machchhegaun, Kathmandu.]