Castaway

.....your caste

You eat your food
And he cleans up your table.
You mess about your room
And she sweeps and mops it clean.
You step on clean porcelain
To relieve yourself
and he with a broom and brush and water
Swipes it sparkling clean.

Think if you had to
Clean up your table,
The mess in your room
Or your toilet bowl.
Two hands are not just enough.

Then why remove the door mat
When your toilet cleaner walks through.
Why throw up your screen cloth
For your servant maid to pass by
Why stand away a distance
When the cesspool cleaner walks past.

Washing plates, cleaning clothes,
Mopping floors and flushing loos,
They do it all
all that you can't do for yourself
He is your hands and legs
That work to make your life better.

Different parts make the body.
Incomplete is the human sans head or toe.
Don't despise anymore
Your own head or foot.
Don't call your own hands untouchables.
Don't avoid seeing your own feet
Just because they are dirty.
Don't squirm at your face
Standing before the mirror.

He and she are your images.
If you can't touch her
Your are an untouchable.
If you keep away from him
Then you have to be kept away from.
If you despise their lot
The it's you who is despicable.

- Swahilya.