POEM :
PREGNANT GUARD
1st section
Scenes often flash’d across screens :
Spectators often teasing the guards,
Getting near horses,
Even teasing horses :
Making fools of themselves.
2nd
Stoically remain the guards,
Train’d to the highest standards,
But better arrangements be need’d :
Deterrence to unruly spectators.
3rd
Now and then scenes of horses
Having had enough of the teasing :
Grabbing the teasers bodily :
But the crowd ne’er learns.
4th
Better discipline need to be enforc’d :
Defaulters dragg’d away
And made to pay :
Going softly has ne’er work’d.
5th
Recently appear’d a shocking scene :
A pregnant guard sitting on her horse :
Mindless ‘twas to have given her
Active guard duty,
Knowing how unruly be the crowd
And how wildly can react the horses.
6th
Who was it that came up with the idea ?
No commonsense at all ?
What were they waiting for ?
A pregnant officer falling off the horse,
Getting trampl’d by the animal ,
Putting Mum and baby in danger ?!...
7th
Where hath flick’d off commonsense ?
Rigid, mindless thinking
Threw commonsense out of the window…
They ne’er put logic first
Always rigid ideas that must ne’er
Be chang’d, whatever the circumstance…
8th
It amount’d to putting a worker
Directly in the line of danger.
Were there a shortage of guards ?..
A light duty, away from the public
Should have been given to the woman.
9th
The poor woman thrice press’d the bell :
No one came,
No one answer’d…
What was their reasoning ?...
Failure to attend to a person in need,
That was what it was.
Rigid discipline, regardless…
It matter’d not
If Mum and baby went…
10th
This situation ne’er should happen again,
For Pete’s sake !...
When will they come to their senses ?...
Other guards should have taken turns
To work a slightly longer shift each.
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Soman Ragavan.
12 February, 2026
Mauritius (Indian Ocean)
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