THE MAN AND HIS ROACH

There once was a man of few possessions,

Who had lived a life of sheer innocence,

He was a man of honesty to the core,

And so he was disliked by one and more.

The haters then plotted against him one day,

And with the help of the sarpanch put him in jail, 

There in the cell he spent many a night, 

With no respite for a bail in sight.

The cell he was in had the nocturnals at night,

And soon he befriended a cockroach with a stripe,

He talked to the roach with affection and delight,

And thus he stayed in the cell many days and nights. 

One fine day he was released on a bail,

By a person who was unknown to him till date, 

He walked out in the sunshine and followed a path, 

And soon found himself in a lonely tea shop. 

There in the shop he saw nothing going on,

And it was only then that he looked all around,

The shop was in the midst of many a tree, 

The gulmohar, the banyan and the scattered neem.

He asked for a tea and sat by the fence of picket,

And then took out the roach from his worn out pocket,

He placed his dear friend on the rickety table, 

So he could show someone what the roach was capable.

His tea was brought in a glass with many a crack,

And as the server was getting back to his shack, 

Our man gestured him with a great sense of delight, 

To come take a look at his friendly roach with a stripe. 

“Do you see what this is?” Asked our man to the server, 

Who in turn took his footwear and gave a harsh blower,

The friendly roach thus sadly died on the spot, 

Leaving our honest man utterly speechless and shocked. 

There once was a man of few possessions,

Who had lived a life of sheer innocence…….