1412TH Toy
So they are clapping for their achievement!
They are celebrating the 1412th tiger in this land
where my forefather roamed to make legends.
But before they take all the credit
for saving my species,
Let me—a mere skinny kitten—clarify:
A tiger born in a zoo is no tiger!
An animal opening its eyes for the first time
among self-vaunting humans is no animal,
It’s a mere flesh and blood toy
conceived by semi-dark conscience
and mechanical techniques.
No man! No I’m no tiger!
I’m just a tiny means to allow you mighty
people to get some solace,
The genes in me have been broken
through your rampages across my lands,
You people know me as a mighty
hunter galloping after my prey,
And here in the confines of this cage
My parents forgot that they were tigers,
Your cages just define we poor animals
Just as poor dependents,
The showcase items for your kids,
To be hooted at,
To be laughed at,
To be mocked at,
No man no! I am no tiger!
I’m just a proof of your outgrowing
your shoes,
What tiger is a tiger that is tame,
It hangs down its tail in shame,
Yes man, you win!
And I bear the burden of being a tiger,
even though my genes have been changed!
Kiss of Death
Life! My purest kisses on your lips
were the honest stamps of
genuine love and loyalty,
I was in supremely pure love,
Even though my delicate, soft smooches
were returned by you as bleeding bites,
I always smiled,
ascending higher and higher to loftiest delights.
Each moment found me unprecedently crazy,
infatuated and caught in the sweet
tentacles of unreined, unrestrained love,
You but always bit back more viciously,
Oh thou heartless seductress!
Taking the poison as sweetest honey,
with bleeding lips I always smiled,
Cuts after cuts you gave,
even before the previous blood dried.
You only sucked,
I just gave rosy hues to you,
and you returned deadly blue,
Still smile and sweetness never
left my bloody lips,
How crazily I shed those lifeful drips!
Blindly I surrendered my being before you,
And you tricked me,
for I always saw life in that deadly hue.
Greedily gasping with venomous sighs and winner’s hiss,
You now approach with that final kiss
to deprive me of final breaths,
Life! Aren’t you ashamed of cheating someone
who perhaps loved you the most?
Flying Kiss
In these slumberous vales
and shy, silent dales,
My spirit escapes the clutch-hold
of my confined being,
And ecstatically saunters away
to those snow-melting peaks,
where the March sun breastfeeds
many a tiny rivulets,
Like a helpless, rooted palm,
I assuage myself and put balm
on my constricted conscience,
Cold sighs I vent out,
as the pinnacled majesty winks
from far with a seductive pout,
And my forlorn spirit runs amuck
and flies to kiss those
coyly surrendering, shining crystals,--
Away, away where rock’s snobby
ego melts maternally!
A Plump Hatch, and Tiny Catch
The day rose
after that stand-still, dark pause,
Like an infant’s mysterious muse,
pinkish horizon took shape
with dreams huge.
Warmth and light fastly spread,
Light prevailed and darkness retreated
with an uncharacteristic dread,
Shadows first lengthened
and then shrank to become bold;
clung firmly to get noontime foothold.
With crowning majesty,
the moments moved towards the zenith,
Everything warmed for brightest glory,
With a firmly straight venture
written was that glorious story,
Roses, roses all the way,
Endless seemed that ray,
Meanwhile the pendulum
swung the other way,
During the lazy afternoon’s lugubrious sway,
shadows silently crept away,
In that slumberous silence,
many a leaves gave away
to the titillating pulls of
mother earth’s gravity song,
Shadows panicked and slowly-slowly
ebbed away to become long,
The other horizon now crimson and red,
It sprayed colors sad,
Lolloping tongues of its funeral fury,
firmed up like death sentencing jury,
Tired voices, slow steps, ebbing strength:
The day that had risen
with such pomp and show,
It was wiped away after that
feeble twilighty ‘no’ .
Criminal Moment
There were times
and there would be times,
But endless is the moment
that still chimes
with the evil song and music of a crime,
A crime when it plucked a life
like a thief sneaking away with last breath
amidst heartbeats missing their mark
imperiled by that chaos and strife.
I bear witness against that murderous moment,
when I was left fatherless and
put on an unprotected plane like never before,
Like a boatman cast away
countless treacherous miles from the shore;
Like a pariah face
Bumping against a slammed, shut door.
No a fatherless being can’t be
the same anymore,
Moments will come
and moments will go,
But the steely vessel of my being
is almost cut to depth by that perilous hoe.
