In the Eyes of a Killer Whale

In the Eyes of a Killer Whale

What is it that I see in your eyes?
Is it memories from days’ bygone?

Now distant and from a long time ago.

What is it that I see in your eyes?

Those beautiful shiny and glazed orbs,

Looking closely at all of us and things around you,

Plotting a secret and dark revenge,

For we trapped you,

And confined you to these glass walls,

A symbol of our perverted desires,

For we like nature,

But not when it is wild,

We like things tamed and domesticated,

And not free,

To be able to look at you,

With these barriers so that you may not harm us.

Or is it maybe,

The happiness of good-riddance,

From those long cold dark days in the open seas,

Where the food was scarce,

And life was an endless stream of near-deaths,

From personal rivalries, fishing boasts, or being trapped in ice.

What is it that I see in your eyes?

As I look at you, and you at me,

As you swim by in these huge monstrous tanks,

Which to you would be just a speck in the ocean.

Is it a wish to swim, and swim free,

And not be constrained by these glass walls,

Built for us to gape and ogle at you?

What is it that I see in your eyes?

Is it a look of gratitude,

Thanking us for our protection,

From the vagaries of the open seas,

And for the food we so dutifully provide to you every day.

I cannot say, for I do not know,

What is it that I see in your majestic eyes,

But sometimes at night,

I dream I am you,

I know I would rather swim out into the open ocean,

And face whatever life throws at me,

And swim free, and die free.

Mukund Palat Rao

(April 7, 2013)

The poem might be about killer whales but this is my opinion about all animals and fish and other living beings we have trapped in various zoos and aquariums all around the world.

Unfortunately I do not have any pictures of killer whales but these were a few images I found on my computer of animals in zoos and fish in aquariums.
(If you click on any of the images below you can view them on a slide show)

Poem: A Dog's Life

All photos courtesy Mukund P Rao

                     A Dog’s Life

Amongst the sights that you see oft,
Here is one I like a lot,
And pray if you enquire as to what it is,
Here would be my reply,
‘A dog with a dirty tail.’


Jeez!
What is it about a dog and its hind quarter,
That evokes in me such mirth and laughter?

Imagine yourself as a dog,
On a hot and dusty summer noon,
The sun is blazing; your throat is parched,
And your paws are scorched.
Then all of a sudden as though a gift from God,
Beside the road you spy a puddle,
And there you go and jump and play,
Maybe sit down and take a nap for the day.

Aah!
What bliss,
As you feel the coolness engulf you,
You look around and notice people envy you.

A strange joy spreads across my heart,
When I see a dog take such a delightful bath,
And especially when a dog all wet and wagging tail,
Comes upto you and drenches you like an upturned pail,

A Dog’s life on days such as these,
Is one of relative ease,
And I would quite willingly trade,
Our places, so that on that puddle I could have laid!

Mukund Palat Rao (September 7, 2010)
  

P.S: If you live in Delhi and are inspired by my poem, right now isn't exactly the best time to go and jump in a puddle and have a siesta there. Might end up with dengue. 

Poem-Mukund P Rao

Let the journey be the aim

Sometimes in life we wonder,
where this quest might lead us?
and when we sit and ponder,
we find we haven’t an answer.
All our lives we always work,
a destination in our minds.
How ‘bout once you drop the aim,
and let the journey be the final aim.
Sit back and then relax, live every day,
knowing, God paid you to play today.
Life will move much slower then,
and you can drink it to the lees.
Enjoy every moment then,
and do not worry about what will be.

Mukund P Rao

Written while I was supposed to be doing a humanities assignment and my mind wandered a bit.

P.S. I never worried about getting the vase shape for the poem. It wasn't my destination. I just wrote the poem and the shape just came along the way. I did alter a couple of lines at the end though but most of it happened on its own.