Teesta Review: A Journal of Poetry, Volume 5, Number 1. May 2022. ISSN: 2581-7094
Animal Poems
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| Image: Whistling Thrush Courtesy: ebird.org |
1.
To a Whistling Thrush
You greet the
morning
In inimitable
style,
Pouring silver
strands into the air.
As your liquid
throat
Artlessly trills the
melody
Our ears imbibe
like precious ambrosia.
It courses through
our veins,
Uplifting as a
child’s innocent prayer
And the day flows
like a jeweled stream
Sparkling with
song.
Sometimes you
travel elsewhere with your song.
Bereft of music,
the silence yawns,
An empty gaping
chasm.
The muddy hours
limp past
Thick as a morass,
Stifling as a
cage.
When you return
To worship the
dawn
With your honeyed
offerings,
The day gleams
once again,
A burnished
pathway
Radiant with hope.
God’s in his
heaven. We breathe,
All’s right with
the world again.
2.
The Night of the Leopards
Caught on camera,
You are an awesome
sight.
The lithe frame
Executing elegant
leaps
Like the most consummate
of athletes,
Leaves us wide
eyed with wonder.
The mysterious
coughs
That woke me last
night
Have surely found
an explanation.
But the man whose
piglets
You slaughtered mercilessly
last night
Has scant
admiration for your acrobatics.
For him you’re a
menace
To be exterminated
post haste.
Forest dweller,
Alas, we’ve left
you no option
But to prowl our
streets
In search of prey,
And be preyed upon
in turn.
The hunter is
compelled to turn scavenger.
The newspapers
have their headlines,
The readers have
their thrills,
But the question confronts
us.
Who is the
encroacher, who the menace?
Who must shoulder
the blame?
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