Editor's Choice
Theme: Atrocity

A Rise or Fall ?

(on the death of a leopard which was killed by mob near Gandarpur, Bhubaneswar on 13 January, 2011)
 
A leopard killed,
How easy it sounds.
But the fact goes
The leopard died in a war.
 
A war with rods, poles, spears and stones
Was seen again
In the city of elites;
History repeating………
 
All fought like heroes
Except the leopard
Who died like a meek civilian
With hands off, legs up
Praying for mercy
In vain.
 
You abhor Maosists
Yet with double the wrath of
Hundreds of Maosists
You beat it to death
 
You killed it on its homeland.
Who was it ?
May be
It was a cop deployed to guard its land
Or a dark adivasi apprehending the white?
 
In the out skirts of the city
By a river bed
Under the open sky
It could not be arrested
But encountered and killed.
 
How much land you need?
 
The jungle is dying
The concrete jungle emerging
The jungles, however, invaded,
                         traumatized.
 
Men fought wars against man
Making heroes out of aggression.
  
Very often
elephants, bears, bees, monkeys
                                 and now leopards
Trumpets blown
Beware the World War III coming
Invincible man versus dumb animals.

17-Jan-2011

More By  :  Prafulla Sahu

Views: 1382     Comments: 4

Comments on this Poem

Comment To me it was not a war at all! So unequal and vicious - too many armed men against a lone beast, who fails to understand what men pretend to do! Yes it is man against the dumb beast. The beasts may be dumb, but they surely understand to acommodate with nature, while man in its so called superiority, trys every bit to accommodate nature for its own pleasure, that is a sad paradox. It is not a war, it is the sisnister desire (need!) of the selfish human being to trample on anything that comes on the way. Why the maoist bit, it seemed to jumble the picture opening separate dimensions. Nicely thought and very sensitively captured. Touching.

Bijoy Chandra Mohapatra
02-Apr-2012 00:58 AM

Comment A fully occasional poem leading to occasions of truth....

Pallavi Padmavasini
20-Jan-2011 13:22 PM

Comment hi papa....................it was really a very heart touching poem.................as usual my papa rocks.........................congrats. urs naughty daughter Beauty

Swati Subhadarshini
20-Jan-2011 05:17 AM

Comment This leopard must have become habituated to preying on livestock or, worse, was a maneater - no reason is given in the poem as to why it should be attacked by a mob, whiich indicates pre-meditation, a concerted effort to get rid of a menace.

rdashby
18-Jan-2011 17:00 PM


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