Cockroach Poem by Pradip Saikia

A.
It will encroach into your playroom
Even if there is no chink

It will look at its reflection in the well

Will commence its endless journey

A cursed cockroach
Will meander around your dying bloodstream

Unbelievably he is hungry
Polite

Your scintillating past
Will glitter
In the twinkling of a pair of sharp eyes

It will nibble away
One by one
The live pages
Of your present

Departed hours
Will be oozing from the clefts of its sharp teeth
In its pulsating exultation


B.
This very cockroach
It does also have a horoscope
Even Ambikapad Sarma did not know that
What a wonder
This ancient creature
Even in the core of astrologers

Standing at the peak of my vanity
What a destructing time it is

That nibbles away
Every marginal para
Of happiness and sorrow
With the touch of a pair of tentacles


# Translated from Assamese to English by: Bibekananda Chowdhury