by Bruce Bennett

“Until a couple of weeks ago, Abhijeet Dipke was one of thousands of Indian students in the United States with a fresh graduate degree in hand, seeking a job. Then, a cockroach changed his life. It started with a question that Mr. Dipke, a 30-year-old graduate of the public relations program at Boston University, posted on X on May 16: ‘What if all cockroaches came together?’ He was responding to comments a day earlier from India’s chief justice, Surya Kant, who referred to young and unemployed Indians as cockroaches who, failing to secure jobs, end up complaining on social media or becoming activists and criticizing the system.”
—The New York Times

What if we came together,
we roaches, as a crowd,
and raised high raspy voices,
intransigent and loud?

Not only would they hear us.
They’d fear us, since they’d know
that we possessed the power
to cause their overthrow.