I
His long, shy snout gleamed in the scraps-yard
startled, his trot through the back yard gleamed now and on
I raised him from the merely four footed
I was hooked on his humble tail
and his strange greenish howl
in the quiet of night
II
Inside the bamboo grove is this home
secure in a quiet hole
once I lit a straw torch and leaves
at the entrance to his hole and smoked him out
wailing he jumped straight into our net
the cruel knots of the net overflowed
with our joy and our fun.
It kept captive the dusky destiny of that fox
III
made a cage for him while he feigned dead
finally, he had a bite of the alien food!
soyabean for meat, the spotless white of rice,
a green vegetable brew, biscuits,
and the domesticated affection of milk.
Fat broke into his unbroken rest
and lodged under his hide.
He glowed and his reflexes slowed
and he was getting duller everyday.
IV
Once I hitched him on to a clay cart
had his legs shod with brass
his mouth in an iron muzzle
and I saw tears stream down his eyes
in abject degradation
Yet he pulled the flesh of my body
and the joy of my fat
He wound his way to the dignity of labour
to the dignity of civilization
his round of life had drastically changed.
V
he was the lone mystery in the woods of my life.
I had seen him dig and take out
the milk white body of my kid sister
buried inside that grove
the sister that had filled my childhood
and from under the banana tree
he looked me straight in the eye
and I thought his teeth sank into my bosom
I felt strangely attracted to him since then
VI
And on a primitive day
when the vulgar sun had bared its teeth
and caught the earth in myriad cobwebs
I found an ugly greed growing in me.
I had him out of the cage,
"I will cut your ears to make me a lamp"
the lullaby that mother put us to sleep with
I cut off his ears and then speared his heart
to stop all throbbing.
I skinned him, the brown hide that kept his flesh hidden
his last movement was there in his blood.
VII
no zoology text recorded the taste of his meat
or even of his greenish howl
the taste got on to my head
the taste spiraling swirled
in the recesses of my head.
It soothed my direly hurt soul
and my body glowed in pristine wings.
... so much luxury, so much effort
and such a heinous murder
for this my late meal!