Learning to Bystand.....:-(

My friend Magiceye, posted this photograph  of a crow getting the capital punishment, almost poked to death,  watched by the Crow society.   You may see it here  at 365project.org.

With rules of civil society being changed, abused, and implemented  with an eye on those in power , and the recent happenings in Guwahati and elsewhere, one just wondered if the crows were learning something......like the Bystander Effect.    

An ordinary life,
struggling for open skies,
food,
and avoiding
powerful swooping
eagle eyed spies.

Did he offend
a neighbor
with a bad Kaw Kaw ?

Was he found
making eyes
at a local girl crow ?

Or is it a she crow,
who decided to elope
with a he crow
she scavenged around with..?


They were both found
beneath
the bougainvillea branch
sharing a chapati,
he retrieved from a kind balcony.

They poked him
and molested her
to bits,
two leading powerful
gunda crows,
impervious to being photographed.

And the rest of them,
amazingly,
simply stood around,
supposedly stunned,
but gutless,
proving the Bystander effect.

The crows have learned a lot
from us.

Ways of the world....

Once again....

(photo by Sylvia Kirkwood)

Beneath
the petals
spread in clinical precision
shoulder to shoulder
fresh and blue
clustered en masse
secure
in the safety
of numbers,
are
the hardworking,
rough skinned
upward looking
leaves
flaring out
tangled
mostly in tolerance,
in each other,
some purple
at the edges
due to strain,
some coming up
with new ones,
and some,
slogging away beneath
in proletarian style
so that
the blues
may enjoy their day
in the sun.

Practically Spiritual of Spiritually Practical ?

Content with the spiritual in the daily and routine. On reading this by Braja.


Freshly cleaned puja lamps,
Whiff of burning ghee,
Champas and jasmines
filling the basket
as she sits,
her tresses adorned
with the saree pallu;
For puja
in a world she thinks
is godly celestial.
A ear tuned to the cry
of a little one
searching for his mother...
She pauses mid puja
as she sees him crawl in
and break
into a toothless smile;
Into her lap,
with a cry
climbs her Krishna,
Her other hand,
holds the aarti.
Praising Him,
soundlessly,
amidst his gurgles,
for this real Puja
Of her life.....