Gopalakrishna Adiga - Prayer

Lord,
plying the well-known pumps of heraldic praise
your hirelings bend double; others, gouty wagtails,
lick the land for crumbs; one snuffs his candle out
and seeks like a eunuch leech
the warm marshes in the cracks of light;
another sissy gives his back to the time-fed rumps
and sheathes his dagger deep.
Lord,
I am not of these.


—In Prarthane (Prayer, 1957)

Gopalakrishna Adiga

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/prayer-30/