Cosmic Animal Forgiveness
Beautiful as an incarnation of Nandi himself
A white bull roamed in my neighbourhood
Chewed overgrown shoots over boundary walls
Grazed monsoon green grass on empty plots
Sat on the pavement; people sprinted past him
Some touched him for divine blessing
Mindful of his majestic horns.
I have named the dogs and goats around my house
But couldn’t think of a name to match his aura.
Last winter, while walking my dog
Up ahead, a strange form cast a shadow
Through the fog, almost alien
My dog barked, spitting out his soul
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Took me a while to tell him
“It’s the bull, buddy, see”, took a step closer
“It’s the bull, you know him..”
His large, kind eyes below the horns
Smiled, his head lowered to nuzzle my dog.
Saw him again today — I saw
One horn broken off clean near the root.
He, colossal, shy, beautiful,
Ran with his anxious tail twitching
To cross the near-empty street,
Scared of a measly scooter in the distance
One horn broken off clean near the root.
Not bleeding anymore, the beautiful white bull
Scared of steel, asphalt and machine
The memory of the pain branded on his heart
Which I pray forgives us in its cosmicity.
