thecreativespace
Maternal love is the loftiest on this earth. There is no bigger loss than the loss of a mother. This poem is based on a video clip I happened to watch which showed the tender love of a tiger for a helpless orphaned fawn- the little one of a deer. The poem delineates the slow transformation of a fierce tiger to a tender creature filled with motherly love.
Graceful but fierce, a tiger on the prowl,
Hunger prodded her to fume and scowl
Profound her senses yet all attempts fouled
She kept howling - but how long could she howl?
Youth kept her not dejected but dogged in her steps
Along the alpine track she crawled rocky depths
Plodded the cracking grassy steppes
Slogged her way through overgrown thickets.
Was that a stroke of luck that she spotted
at a distance, a heavily pregnant doe trotted
Who in search of a place secluded
To give birth far away from predators.
The elated tiger lay in ambush
Drew closer, and noiseless hid behind a bush
The deer advanced, danger unaware
To beget her baby in solemn prayer.
Pounced upon her without a moment’s thought
the big cat with all fierce and might.
She clawed deep into her neck till no breath was left
Latched on to the prey, to ensure death.
Before she could feast on her delicious kill,
A tiny bleat behind broke the tranquill.
A little fawn newly born, and not of her kind
Shocked her, sent a chill up her spine.
She touched not the mother deer
the fawn she could do nothing but stare
She kept watching the squirming tiny one
And followed the wobbly steps in confusion.
She tried to feed the infant with grub and worm
But the newborn cried hoarse for her mom,
Day and night for two whole days it went on
The endless cries, the tiger helpless, let out a groan.
Though not a mom she felt maternal love churn
from deep within her heart for the forlorn one
She had no thought for her hunger or thirst
But only to comfort the little lost orphan.
The cries of the fawn grew feeble and weak
The unsteady steps stopped and the little one quit
Drifted into a sleep no one could awake,
Left this world before she could even make
The tiger kept watch for two more days
To see if the lifeless kid would awake
For she had become a kin unawares
To the little motherless, a little mother.
(Aniamma Joseph: Former Professor of English, she is a bilingual writer. She writes articles, poems, short stories, novels and plays in Malayalam and English. Her novel Ee Thuruthil Njan Thaniye received the Kesari Award from DC Books. Other published works include Hailstones in My Palms, a collection of poems; and Ardhavrutham, a novel among others. She is also a translator, and 3 of her translations including a novel Ahalya by Dr. Rani Binoy (into English) and Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlowe (into Malayalam) are to be published shortly. Email: anniejoseph10@yahoo.com)
(Image credit: Alexa from Pixabay)