Tiger tiger

That’s how whispers

And words travel

Ah! The safari sightings!!

No one goes to be

In the forest

Or to feel the forest

Clamour is to see

The strongest in the wild

“Tiger Tiger

Burning Bright “

Poets too have had

Their tryst with tigers

So have writers and film makers

Ghost and darkness

Horrors of appearance of a tail

The majestic beauty

Which can unleash

Multiple emotions

And the thrill

How I wished

Excitement was for

Lesser forest beings

But all vehicles

Had just a singular focus

Big cats, for bigger thrill

‘point and shoot’

Earlier game hunters said this

Now it’s a catch word

For photographers

With their expensive gears

Gears have moved from guns

To the latest mirrorless cameras and zooms

But does the tiger know?

What is pointing at it?

Safari guides know the

Tiger’s territories

And movements

Somewhere the line blurs

Between fascination

And the obsession

We forget we are

In this Tiger’s territory

We forget we are the

Uninvited guests

To the grand spectacule

We want the animals

To be performative

Everything has to be

Performative these days

For reels, for likes and followers

Even poetry too!

No one does for the sake of doing

No one breathes for the sake of breathing

Or lives for the sake of living

That fine art

That only thrives in the wild

We view that too

Through our narrow and wide lens

Through  our aperture settings

The trip must deliver

Our lives must deliver

Something grand

Big thrills and big joys

Visible to all

However obscene it may seem

The tiger though

Lifted it’s head

Glared into the lens

Eyes burning bright

Were we performing for it too?

Next day she moved

On to the hill top

With a perfect view

Gave perfect shots

Like a trained model

With cubs around

She was the one

Definitely calling shots

While humans

Clamoured with their

Lens, perspectives, light of sight

For that perfect moment

And the picture

Which will perhaps

Hang on someone’s walls

Virtual or real

We reduce it all

The grandness of it

Into mere gratification

Momentary gratification

We are addicted to

We need these highs

To forget our lows

Higher we rise

Lowest we fall

A city is all set 

To send dogs to detention center

An order is out to capture the tiger

Which attacked the humans

Humans who have built roads

Into their territories

Are now the new colonisers

How much ever we study history

Dissect colonisation

We continue to colonise nature

To plunder it all

Leaving no space to other species

While the capital city

Chokes on high AQI

We try fancy stuff

Like seeding the clouds

We want even clouds

To be performative

Even when all our acts

Grand spectacular failure

We refuse to learn simple truth

We just need to save 

The planet and nature 

For it to save us!!