The Creature Poem by Raj Arumugam

After the taunting
the creature is beaten deep into the cave where
it is dark and the stalactites do not shine;
there are the sounds of water
hitting the rocks below and there are the echoes
and the hard breathing of the creature itself
filled layer upon layer
upon itself.

Its scaled eyelids are closed;
the creature is withdrawn into itself.
It breathes gently now and its chest rises and falls on
the countless folds of its body and mind.
It is withdrawn within itself. There is hurt;
there is resentment; there is heaviness
that fills all its days and nights.




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