For all its glitter, diamond
is only carbon, never mind differences 
in price, quality, prestige.
Carbon, they said, was black, ugly,
so they changed the refractive index,
used it as lead to shoot
graphitic holes in paper masks,
then realised it could be polished
to still greater purposes, and made
what we call a diamond. The softness
gradually became hard.
Today, only another diamond
can cut me.

From Nirvana at Ten Rupees, XAL-Praxis, 1990