The Mild Tiger Among Wild Men Poem by Rajendran Muthiah

I am the royal Bengal tiger,
‘Nethra' is my name.
Would I go out on bail
from the Chennai-Vandalur zoo?
I just staged a walk out
and enjoyed a sojourn in a bush
musing on the vagaries of my fortune.


To entertain the boys and girls
I have been shut into a District-jail
bereft of pure water and air.
The leading lawyers don't take me out
on bail for violation of animal-rights.
I didn't kill people as the elephants do
but they put me into the prison
and would sedate me often wantonly.

Though my kin are ill-mannered and violent
I didn't touch anyone in this two-days outing.
But the media have made much of my escape!
The people dared not come out alone.
But the workers of the zoo kept a bait
And lured me into the cabin for a bite.

I jumped over the fence
and swam across the moat
and came out of the zoo with a master plan
to make a lay-out of the vast jungle nearby.
But to err is not only human!
What a fall to a rotten piece of meat!