The Flickering Lamp Poem by Ajit Das

There lives the untouchable, consigned
to the outskirts of the village,
in insidious deprivation, robbed
of his dignity by an iniquitous process,
yet refusing to yield to the lure
of unshackled days on another’s path.

The sun sets in the evening sky,
dark gathers within his thatched hut,
he lights an earthen lamp
before the broken image of the god,
relying on the certitude
in vague consciousness of his faith.