Poem-ComeInUrgentlySlakker-57...!--5Aug2025

POEM :

“COME IN URGENTLY, SLAKKER-57 !”

(IMAGINARY; after the F-35 incident in Kerala, India)

https://allpoetry.com/poem/18575444-Poem-ComeInUrgentlySlakker-57...---5Aug2025-by-Soman-Ragavan/

 

“(...) VISION. A great poet has spiritual insight and can see truths that others do not. Poets have, in moments of vision, the power of understanding, by a kind of instinct, things, their qualities and the relations between them, which ordinary people cannot see. All true poetry is the product of vision or imagination, for it is the expression of it. The poet idealises the real. There is suggestiveness in great poetry. It suggests or implies much more than it says....” -- Wren & Martin : "HIGH SCHOOL ENGLISH GRAMMAR AND COMPOSITION." (Revised by Prasada Rao).  New Delhi : S. Chand & Co., 1994. (Reprinted 1994). Full acknowledgements are made here to the authors, publishers and rights-holders.

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1st section

A joint English-Indian naval exercise be taking place

Off English shores, in the Anglo-French Channel.

After the exercise, an Indian Su-57 warplane

Takes off from an Indian carrier and flies

Near the English coasts.

Suddenly some emergency arises,

And the plane turns towards the English coast.

 

2nd

Hell breaks loose on the carrier !

A vital piece of equipment be the Su-57...

Ne’er should it fall in foreigners’ hands...

Alarms even reach Russian military stations.

The Americans intercept the radio

And radar transmissions.

They be rubbing their hands

With utmost delight !...

 

3rd

The plane lands at an English base :

Hell breaks loose, too, at English military stations.

This be unprecedent’d...

The English, too, dearly want to get their hands

‘Pon such a vital piece of hardware...

 

4th

Profound diplomatic, political, military,

Security and intelligence issues

Explode all over the place...

How to deal with this issue,

That be too hot to handle ?!...

  

5th

The English close the airport

And impose a no-access zone for ten miles around.

Indian diplomats arrive near the airport

But be held down with complex chats...

The carrier insists on getting instant

Contact with the pilot.

The English play dumb,

Cite air control, safety,

Military issues.

 

6th

“Come on, good friends, old friends,

We need to get to our warplane immediately !

Surely you understand our position.

You are not going to destroy

Our relations about this affair,

Are you ?... Surely not !”

Exclaim the Indians.

 

7th

The Russian Embassy be scrambling

All over the place.

They insist on getting immediate access

To the plane.

The English cite a myriad of excuses :

Civil defence,

Emergency landing protocols,

Securing the whole airport...

  

8th

Both the Indians and the Russians

Be blowing their tops...

“Give us access now

Or hell will break loose !”

 

9th

“We are used to hell breaking loose,”

Muse the English to themselves...

“We enjoy hell breaking loose,

Let it break the loosest it can get !”

Muse the Americans...

Such a valuable toy cannot be let go.

 

10th

The pilot be taken away

For questioning.

“No, I will sit on the tarmac

And wait for my buddies to come over !”

He yells.

But be dragg’d by force to a room...

 

11th

Experts be scrambling all over the plane,

Trying to decipher the whole thing.

The Indians and the Russians talk

Of lasting damage...

“We have liv’d with lasting damage

For centuries,” mutter the English...

“Let the damage last as it bloody pleases,

We ain’t going nowhere...”

Mutter the Americans...

  

12th

The whole English and American

Diplomatic and defence machinery

Swing into action.

The plane be examined in detail.

In fact, data had been wip’d clean

From the equipment on board...

“The goddam plane record’d nothing ?!”

Wonder the prying guys...

 

13th

Diplomatic, trade, economic,

Defence, parliamentary, cultural,

Commonwealth, joint military exercises,

Military gifts : you name it :

The whole lot be dangl’d afore

The Indians’ eyes...

Same bribes from the Americans.

Dire warnings from the Russians.

Nothing doing.

 

14th

The Indians be coming to terms with reality :

The plane be out of their control.

One might as well accept such generous gifts

From the old friends, the good friends...

After all, Commonwealth links,

Cultural, political, economic ties...

The threats be chilling...

And then, such finest chats

How to reject ?...

 

15th and last

The plane has sung...

Some be laughing their bloody heads off...

Victory after victory for some :

Defeat after defeat for others...

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Soman Ragavan

5 August, 2025

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