Buffalo Cow Poem by Tribhawan Kaul

A black figure
tied to a post
heaving deep sigh
reflecting
silently
on days going by,
deep thoughts
caressing her heart’s core
like tides
touching the shore.

Would that
like other ladies
she could have done her hair
made herself up like fairies
with powder and lip-stick
roamed and wandered on high heels
in a car
and ate different cuisines.

But alas!
no one cares for BLACKS
whole world is silent
this question whenever asked
is always put on racks.

Watching apartheid
wanted she
also to fight for her rights
to go on hunger strikes
to get placated
to be consoled by the state
both first and fourth estate.

Everyone who matters should have pleaded
and when asked who she was?
Arrogantly she should have flaunted
her connections
that the transporter of Yama
is her maternal uncle
but nothing happens
since her existence
she, equipped with horns like weapon
produces milk for our kids
nourishing our progeny to growth
yet she is tied to a post
as ordained for her
and she frightfully
asks a question to the Ordainer
how long she has to suffer.


(The poem was written keeping in mind Dr. Nelson Mendela and Martin Luthar King fight for the rights of African and American Black respectively./2010)