Skip to main content

Eagle


An eagle I saw in Orcha a few months back

I fly, I fly high, I fly very high,
Heights are in my genes,
My eyrie is on the cliff
With no egg waiting to hatch.

Eagle’s eggs are eaten by scavenging crows.

They descend, the crows descend,
And feed on the maggots that breed on the garbage
Thrown by you people all over what you call civilisation –
In the backyard of the plaza or the foreground of Gaza.

The carrion of your civilisation nauseates me.                    
I cannot lay eggs anymore.
My bones shrink at the sight of your city.
I’ll be the missing link between man and humanity.

I’ll die in my eyrie one day
Without any egg to hatch,
Without offspring,
Without grief.

My unlaid egg is waiting for the Darwinian mutation
in my eyrie

where scavenging crows strive to ascend.

Comments

  1. This is really a good poem. Enjoyed it.

    ReplyDelete
  2. It talks about a lot of things. I am very least aware of this but after reading this I feel that eagle's population is at risk. Also your poem questions the human civilization. Oh yes... We have made living unfit for every other being. And this time it's rhyming... :) :D

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. A lot of things, yes, Namrata. That seems to be my nemesis. I cannot focus on one thing. I guess we cannot simplify anything by reducing the complexity ...

      Rhyming? I wasn't aware of it. Thanks for pointing out.

      Delete
  3. Humans and their evergrowing population.. sometimes I feel all other kinds of NGOs should be converted to population control organisations all around the world n esp. India. Your poem is nice and convey the point strongly..

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You raise a wonderful point about NGOs. We have too many of them in India. A few of them could become a little more useful, no doubt.

      Delete
  4. I never even gave a thought about crows eating eagles eggs, this simply shows even the smallest of kind can be dangerous..nice poem :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Crows don't actually eat eagles' eggs, Najim. I was being metaphorical. Exaggeration of truth: poetic license, you see.

      Delete
  5. good poem Tomichan. And isn't the pic that of a vulture?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Could be, Anupam. Orcha is a place where vultures could find more natural habitats than eagles. I could be wrong. But I'm letting it be. This is a poem, you see :)

      Delete
  6. It has such hidden meanings and depth.You are a great poet.Loved this one.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Glad to hear that, Ankita. I'm not a great poet, I express certain deeply felt emotions...

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Adventures of Toto as a comic strip

  'The Adventures of Toto' is an amusing story by Ruskin Bond. It is prescribed as a lesson in CBSE's English course for class 9. Maggie asked her students to do a project on some of the lessons and Femi George's work is what I would like to present here. Femi converted the story into a beautiful comic strip. Her work will speak for itself and let me present it below.  Femi George Student of Carmel Public School, Vazhakulam, Kerala Similar post: The Little Girl

The Little Girl

The Little Girl is a short story by Katherine Mansfield given in the class 9 English course of NCERT. Maggie gave an assignment to her students based on the story and one of her students, Athena Baby Sabu, presented a brilliant job. She converted the story into a delightful comic strip. Mansfield tells the story of Kezia who is the eponymous little girl. Kezia is scared of her father who wields a lot of control on the entire family. She is punished severely for an unwitting mistake which makes her even more scared of her father. Her grandmother is fond of her and is her emotional succour. The grandmother is away from home one day with Kezia's mother who is hospitalised. Kezia gets her usual nightmare and is terrified. There is no one at home to console her except her father from whom she does not expect any consolation. But the father rises to the occasion and lets the little girl sleep beside him that night. She rests her head on her father's chest and can feel his heart...

War and Meaning of Victory

In the summer of 1999, while the rest of India was soaked in monsoon and Cricket World Cup, the country’s soldiers were clawing up frozen cliffs daring the bullets that came shooting from above. India’s incorrigible neighbour had sent its soldiers and militants to capture the snow-covered peaks of Kargil. It was an act of deception, a capture of India’s land stealthily. The terrain was harsh and hostile, testing the limits of human courage with every jagged step. The Kargil War was not just against a human enemy, but against peaks of stones and snow where the air itself was an adversary. Three months of bitter conflict and subhuman killing ended in India’s victory over the invading Pakistan. Victory! July 26 is celebrated ever after as Kargil Vijay Diwas by India. What is victory, however? Philosophically, I mean. We are supposed to be rational (philosophical) creatures, after all. “ W ar does not determine who is right,” Bertrand Russell said famously, “but who is left.” Every...

Stories from the North-East

Book Review Title: Lapbah: Stories from the North-East (2 volumes) Editors: Kynpham Sing Nongkynrih & Rimi Nath Publisher: Penguin Random House India 2025 Pages: 366 + 358   Nestled among the eastern Himalayas and some breathtakingly charming valleys, the Northeastern region of India is home to hundreds of indigenous communities, each with distinct traditions, attire, music, and festivals. Languages spoken range from Tibeto-Burman and Austroasiatic tongues to Indo-Aryan dialects, reflecting centuries of migration and interaction. Tribal matrilineal societies thrive in Meghalaya, while Nagaland and Mizoram showcase rich Christian tribal traditions. Manipur is famed for classical dance and martial arts, and Tripura and Arunachal Pradesh add further layers of ethnic plurality and ecological richness. Sikkim blends Buddhist heritage with mountainous serenity, and Assam is known for its tea gardens and vibrant Vaishnavite culture. Collectively, the Northeast is a uni...

The RSS and Paradoxes

The oldest racist organisation in the world is all set to celebrate the centenary of its existence. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) was founded in 1925 with the specific goal of unifying the Hindus in India under a religious and cultural banner. The Indian Independence struggle that was going on in full force at that time was no concern of the RSS. Though it gave the liberty to its individual members to take part in the struggle, the organisation’s official policy was to stay clear of it altogether. That was only one of the many paradoxical ironies that marked the RSS which was a nationalist organisation that cared little for the Independence of the nation. Today, the Prime Minister of India is a man who was trained and nurtured by the RSS. Shashi Tharoor wrote a massive book on the paradoxes that underscore the personality of Mr Narendra Modi. The RSS and paradoxes go hand in hand, if we take Modi as a specimen of the organisation’s great achievements. Tharoor’s final asses...