Tiptoed, she walked,
Her soles barely making any sound
Her breaths controlled,
for that effortless ease which can’t be feigned.
Attentive, alert, with each step measured.
Her eyes darted,
From one point to another,
Surveying, for the smallest movement.
She chose her path after careful deliberation,
For the world does watch her, even from a distance!
She is watched, nay scanned, nay followed, nay dissected
Her every move observed,
She has to be quick, lest they observe her!
From the top of the buildings,
From the safety of the darkness of the bushes clouding the edge of the road,
From left and right, from the front, and from behind,
And from all the vantage points they can find!
They keep a track of her routes,
They pick up her scent,
The marks left by her feet,
The sounds that the leaves rustling on the trees around her carry,
Dissolved with the sound of her laboured breathing,
It is late,
She must reach home.
Her children must be waiting, hungry,
But these wolves!
She admonishes her heart,
And chides her heaving chest,
For being so weak and beating so hard,
For sounds do travel,
And they are heard!
She doesn’t afford to be heard!
No, you restless heart!
Calm down.
Get a grip!
Hold on to your nerves!
For silence is her biggest weapon!
This dirt, refuse, this filth that surrounds her,
And covers her every pore, every thought,
Every nook and cranny of her body,
And looms over the smallest crevices of her mind,
She must pass through it, for her kids,
In lonely walks, sometimes in the dead of the night,
Tired, exhausted, drained, and hungry, but alert,
For she must be alert!
She walks on,
And in hunger, they too move.
She curses her scent,
Wild, innocent, light as the wind
And radiating with it,
If only her wisdom could absorb the vitality of her scent,
For her own sake!
For scents do travel, and are picked up by the wolves.
Wolves,
Menacing, terrifying,
she walked,
Alone
While they circled,
At a distance,
In a pack,
Cowards!
And then she saw one of them!
Absolute, sheer terror in the eyes!
The other wolves howled, one by one
As the moment laboured into the present,
Slowly, in delayed spans of time,
It arrived to a standstill.
The fear was palpable,
As the wolf looked at her,
And took a few steps,
And then she sprang!
She threw caution to the wind,
And ran,
as fast as her legs could carry her!
The wolf was now sprinting,
And the chase had begun!
They sprinted across roads, and abandoned railway tracks,
The predator in hot pursuit,
Catching and latching on to the faintest whiff of the scent
As he came closer,
And she could feel his limbs, just within reach,
She summoned all her energy,
And jumped with all her might!
They both were now on the ground.
Panting, heaving, breathing heavily,
They both looked at each other for one final time,
And then, it started….
The distant wolves grimly heard the sounds
And the terrifying wails that echoed in the darkness of the night.
Then, they went their own ways,
Safe for another day…
For…
She was a tigress,
A mother,
More powerful than all the world’s demons combined.
For…
Mankind is dead,
And in this abandoned city, this tigress walks alone,
Searching for food for her children,
And maybe, also for herself.