"Hatchling Hairband"

Hatchling hairband

By Arundhati Hoskeri

Fascinating

Exciting baby

Crocodile with

Bulging eyes

Wide open mouth

Long jaws

Sharp denture

Protective armour

Glittering  skin

Cold blooded

Warm hearted

Creepy Hatchling

Adorned my head

I was of course

An instant celebrity

Light -Camera- Action

I enjoyed all that attention

Soon the baby

Picked up my heat

Grew active

Slid down my shoulder

Squirmed on my neck

Tickled with his claws

Then I panicked

Shunned him down

With frenzy shriek

16-10-2012

4:00 pm

On 10th October I was at Bentota -Srilanka. After enjoying the adventurous and  crazy water sports we were enjoying a boat ride, in the lap of nature, cutting through the mangroves. That is when one of the boat attendants quickly picked up a hatchling or a baby crocodile when our boat was moving along the shores, to get into the canopy of Mangroves and asked if any body wanted to touch. The baby looked so beautiful , so charming that I instantly fell in love with him and asked the boatman to put him on my head. For a few minutes he seemed to  enjoy the comfort / warmth of my hair, then slowly moved down my neck and shoulders, when his claws mildly scraped my skin, it was a weird tickling sensation and he started moving down, then quickly I shrieked and let him run down. I have just put this experience in the form of a poem.