The Perils Of Summer Poem by Raj Arumugam

The Perils Of Summer



The newspapers and our
ubiquitous and ever-ready
self-appointed well-meaning
advisors warn us.
Summer is the time when spiders are most active;
snakes are about their smooth crawls
and bees on their monotonous drone
but the worst, I think, are the magpies
for magpies can attack, do be careful.
One may be roosting on a tree and if you walk below
it thinks you are a threat
and so provoked (though you do not intend it)
it swoops down on you and attacks.
It happened to me once,
my friend advises and warns me,
as I was walking down St Lucia; something
just descended on me and was off -
it all happened within the time one can say
Jack Robinson
leaving with me with a split bleeding lip.
Wearing a hat or headgear of some sort
seems to keep them away.
Much safer, I suppose, not to walk
below a tree in summer.
Stay indoors in summer.




(from The Migrant - notes of a newcomer (February 1997- July 1998))

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