An Ode to a Mother

An unsuspecting pachyderm

An expectant and hungry mother

Disoriented and infirm

Wanted food for the little other

 

The village idiots

What were they thinking?

With a pineapple and perhaps a few cigarettes butts

More merciless then Ming

 

Hunger reduced her guard maybe

Ate the offering so rigged

The explosion made her flee

To a river and she uncontrollably jigged

 

Writhing in pain – worried about the other

A pain only understood by a mother

For many of us just a wild animal another

But for others don’t you feel a smother?

 

(A Tribute to the Elephant Mother)

By Prof. Eswaran Narasimhan