The Cobra On The Ant Hill Poem by Vidya Pandarinath

Sneaking out of the large ant hill
Crept the curling, curious long serpent
Flashing intermittently its forked feeling tongue
With a hissing alarming announcement
And withdrew the tail that hung
Devotee - women on their religious fill
Stopped and jumped back seeing the God,
Who with his hood seemed to nod
Impressed, amused or blessed for good
No one knew as each watching stood

One ventured to offer a cup
Of fresh milk and ripe plantain
Chanting holy lines all the while
With the silken rest; things went in vain:
Sacred powders and grains, unfit to sup
And the rather confused- seeming reptile
Darted, landing on the green grass
And mouth- gripped a frog hopping across;
The day began for one right then,
And life ended for the other in leaps ten

The scared few ran away to deduce:
' Some adversity surely this does adduce '.