Net Poem by Kanishka SricharanPratap

You knit a net
Of false
Pretensions
And complexities,
Fixed on hands
Tiger-nails!

Looted everything:
Language, Literature, culture...
Of native land,
Of honest people!

Now see:
How dropped
Your tiger-nails!

Within yourself
Your tongue, hands and legs
Have split!
Backbone is broken!
Brain is smashed!
Blood has turned into water!

I am standing
In front of you,
Who?
A bit of truth!


Translated from Odia by
Subash Chandra Mohapatra