Poem

 












Accusations of a Caged Leopard

In my sleep,
I begin to weep,
For I remember being in the wild,
Forever, with a hunger mild.

Here they feed me every day,
Dawn, dusk, night or day,
Give me all the choicest meats,
And when I’m good, lots of treats.

Back in the jungle I did not know,
What I’d eat till it’d show,
Sometimes I’d wait days and days,
When in a daze, I’d spy a rabbit’s face.

And then I’d leap and chase and dart,
Until the rabbit was a dinner tart,
Now in my cage I just sit and sleep,
And dream about my days in a forest deep.

And,
Everyday I pace up and down,
In my cage with a lonesome frown
My life is confined to an eight by four,
And sleeping on a metal floor.

First they came and cut the trees,
I saw and said I came in peace,
Needed to go two miles south,
To the forest by the river’s mouth.

Instead they threw their sticks and stones,
And betwixt all my painful moans,
With a needle came a man and made a jab,
And took me for tests in a lab.

Now here I am in Central Zoo,
Better known as exhibit two,
And,
Everyday I pace up and down,
In my cage with a lonesome frown
My life is confined to an eight by four,
And sleeping on a metal floor.

Mukund P Rao (June 3, 2010)