Tom and Jerry Retold
K. Radhakumar *
Tom and Jerry
Never, never watch themselves on screen.
The whole thing looks very simple
But it is not:
It is a life-and-death struggle.
When Jerry saves himself
From the jaws of death
Tom goes hungry
And he cannot afford to die of hunger.
Who likes to die young?
Shrieks Jerry in alarm.
One should have time to appreciate
The meaning of life
Before one is dead and gone.
On one occasion
Blackie the Cobra was after Jerry,
Feeling the end had come
Our Jerry ran for dear life.
Life is not like in the fairy tales
Where the heroes end up marrying the heroines;
There is nothing more fearful in life
Than the reality of death.
On another occasion
Jerry could almost feel death
When a giant Hawk
Swooped down on him from nowhere.
Nobody knows how one saved oneself
At such a critical moment;
He found himself panting heavily and hiding
In a dark corner of his mansion
The tunnel behind the bamboo grove.
Our Jerry is very old now.
He is stone deaf;
We can say he is almost blind.
He outlives his wife by ten years
And has no friends.
Material comforts is of no value to him.
He looks blank
And often talks to himself.
A cloud in the shape of a dark cat
Looms up out of the western sky.
The old rat smiles a small smile
For he is no longer afraid of the Jerrys of the world.
* Poem written by K. Radhakumar which was published at The Sangai Express
This poem was webcasted on December 19, 2018.
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