“Draw me a lion.

” and as you pull the silly plastic trigger

So I set my pen all hell breaks loose; quite suddenly the sky
to work. Produce a lazy, kindly beast … is full of smoke and orange stripes of flame.
Colour it yellow.
BUT HERE THERE ARE NO TIGERS
“Does it bite?” HERE THERE ARE ONLY LIONS.
“Sometimes,
but only when it’s angry— And their jackals
if you pull its tail run panting, rabid in the roaring’s wake,
or say that it is just another cat …” infecting all with madness as they pass
But for the most part, indolent, biddable, while My Lord
basking in the sun of ancient pride. the Elephant sways in his shaded arbour,
wrinkles his ancient brows, and wonders—
(Outside, the sunlight seems a trifle dulled if, did he venture out to quell this jungle-tide
and there’s a distant roaring, like a pride of rising flame, he’d burn his tender feet.
of lions, cross at being awakened
from long, deep sleep). “Put down that gun. If you do, and you’re
good,
Then I’ll draw a picture of an elephant.
“Draw me a tiger.” A curious beast that you must understand … .”
Vision of a beast
compounded of Jim Corbett yarns DONT LOOK OUT THE WINDOW—
and Blake Just a party down the lane
stalks through my mind, blazing Nature’s a bonfire, and some fireworks, and they’re
warning, burning—
black bars on gold. No, not a tiger—just some silly cat.”

“DRAW!” Colombo, 25 July,

You turn and draw the gun 1983
on me, as if to show For Dimitri, when he is old enough to
that three-years-old understands force majeure understand.

Author’s note: The lion is the heraldic emblem of the Sinhala or the Lion Race. The principal Tamil terrorist group in the

north of Sri Lanka is known as the “Tigers.” The Elephant is the party symbol of the ruling United National Party.