SALUTE TO A DOG

SALUTE TO A DOG

When winter blessed the valley white

The barrack roofs had kissed the frost

And clad in ice, the airport road

Lay as made of crystal glass.

As the mighty gates were opened wide,

The valley airport woke and breathed.

Hordes of cars and roars of flights

And pack of tourists made it bright.

The valley like a stunning damsel

Was once a reticent girl in grief.

Splintered flesh and wounded veins

She gasped along the age in pain.

Salvage came from far off lands

Marching through the flame of loath.

Set her free from grief and pain,

And thence they guard her safe and fine. 

And for those who leave the valley

Carried along the bracing thoughts,

A tiny head that rummaged around

Had always made them feel so proud.

Amid the men in fur they saw 

A Canine worked in belted coat.

His fair large eyes and gifted nose

Snooping hard for veiled hazards.

There he worked day and night,

Neither growl nor bark he made.

Never pleaded for what to him was owed

Cared not the vagaries of wind and rain.

Aircrafts took off safe and sound,

Relied upon his gifted nose.

Cleared the luggage that came in hordes

Never his heart had fallen down.

 And when danger loomed on the floor

When someone spotted a bag unknown

 The wisest folk when ran to safety 

Forth he came and sniffed the stuff. 

 Together they stood in the aisle, so calm

Together they stood amid life and death.

Still did he work and still did he sniff

And worked his years through dreary strain.

Autumn came, so did monsoon,

Came the winter and sizzling summer

Gates were opened and closed at night,

Nothing changed but only age.

“Action”, the dog lived his time

Till a cancer gripped his spine.

Came in his place a younger dog,

Human life is above all.

On a day when silver snow

Gave way to the weeping sky

His sniffing nose and probing eyes

Closed for ever in a longer breath.

Laid to rest on a wooden plank,

His body looked cold and lank.

The godly nose that saved the souls

 Plugged up neat by cotton swab.

 Here, where the ‘honor guard’

                Set down impassive in ceremonial role

                My soul ached, ‘O brave,.. You were a valour dog!’

                My sense, as though lost in thoughts.

When the lone bugler in uniform,

Played the ‘Taps’ in an awful woe

Stood his master with trembling hands

Upon the last rites with lament eyes.

His body when sank into the womb of earth

His thoughts, a stream pierced the heart.

No more bombs and no more drugs, ‘O, Brave

Now sleep in peace in this silent grave.

Cannot express the plight of being there

Your memories will remain forever, I swear.

That gallant life, that soul of devotion,

What remains……………?

As the trumpet played the force funeral tune,

I saluted him with trembling hands

I prayed for the soul’s blissful eternity.

And whispered-Here rests a dog

Who lived the words -service and loyalty!

(“Service and loyalty” is the motto of CRPF)