Shadow Poem by Pradip Saikia

None has rinsed one's faces in the transfer picture
None has smeared vermilion in the footprint carrying stone

None has talked
None has breathed

If one talks
Lightning strikes somewhere

None has touched fire
None has plucked the sacred grass

The deathly pale children
In the fright of the shadow of the wild dogs

The worried old fellows with a hump
Are looking towards the heaven

The feeling of angst is shaking like a wild horse
Santhali youth

A sword flying across the sky over the shattered houses

This is the last scene - no one knows it

# Translated from Assamese to English by: Bibekananda Chowdhury