Asset verification

"Bring forth the goats purchased

Here at 5 P.M. sharp tomorrow!"

After disbursal of the loans

Humourist in the bank manager

Feigned seriousness; but never

He expected the concourse of

Forty milch goats, their sixty odd

Silken kids, the owner loanee women

From among the poor rural folk

And their underfed and rickety

Children at bank’s door now.

Chatter and laughter are drowned

In full throated bleating of goats.

Heavenward they raise heads and eyes

Half closed, moist, meditating but not

Galled with malice or anger.

Are they solemnly communicating

In their occult language with

The god of their species?

Of late, to chant hymns in rituals

To invoke gods has corrupted

To mundane business; and, shouting

Slogans for a better morn has

Reduced to rituals; hence

What is the relevance of their bleating

That too wanting in gesticulations and gimmicks?

Who knows? But the message

Goes home directly! Can we

Retrieve our lost power for dreaming?

(Image: A praying goat? Source: Flickr)