A Secular Intruder Poem by Rajendran Muthiah

My house was rent free,
to a bold bandicoot,
a secular intruder
to enjoy a free run.

When it gnawed tomatoes
I placed some rice nice,
smeared with some poison,
under the grinder
where its ancestors sojourned often,
cutting the copper coils
and making the motor dead.
The next morning had
a surprise in store for me.
The paper with the deadly matter
was on the verandah.

The rodent then climbed to the shelf
where I kept Pope, Swift and Johnson.
In the dead of night,
hearing its bites
I took a rod to finish it off.
But it gave the slip to me.
Only the satirists lost some corners.

A very good tunnel
next he dug
to guide the dirty water
into our drinking- water- well.
I got wild with rage
but to no avail.

When it ripped the tyre
of my two –wheeler,
I made a great drive
to trap it and kill it.
But by this time it’s kids
grew up to scratch the feet
of my sleeping daughter.

I am not a hardcore militant
or a mindless bomber,
to kill these innocent ones
which go behind an idol,
elephant-faced and pot-bellied
taking that abode for a jungle.