Naba Sapkota
Dust!
Yes, Dust!!
Dust, doomed to be stepped upon, crushed and bleared.
This dust,
doomed to bear other’s feet and wears, ever!
This dust –
paltry at looks! Without an existence!
But these mindless heels,
that ever walk over and step upon,
do not know, the dust houses strange powers.
Fed up with slashes and tempers of the heels,
its universe heats up
and the specs fly, and stick to the body
of the master of these heels
enter the eyes, and the nostrils
and scare the director of the heels.
If oppression amounts more,
its conscience revolts;
and it changes to smudge in indignation
and makes the body of the feet
slip, and have a terrible fall!
[Sapkota is a Nepali-speaking Indian poet from the Assam state of India.]