‘Murgee’

a poem by Mayank Mohan Pande

The wild fowl is known as the ‘jungli murgee’,
The food of jackals, cats and yours truly.
A shot-gun is needed if you don’t have a two-two,
Now that shooting is banned, there is not much to do.
Except go the market and see a less sporting slaughter,
Without fun of the chase and a rare encounter.
A jungli murgee was more difficult to get, than a broiler chicken can be,
More often he beat you, and that’s why he is called the jungli murgee.
Of our murgee again there are two kinds,
One with a shiny black plumage, a name called ‘Kaliz’,
which only in the mountains a hunter finds.
The other is orange and equal in taste.
I could never shoot a murgee because I was always in haste.