NIGHT OF THE SCORPION
By – Nissim Ezekiel
In this poem the narrator recalls the night
when his mother was stung by a
scorpion. The incident took place on a rainy day, when it had rained for ten hours and the scorpion had crawled into the house. After sometime the villagers had started pouring in the house and enchanted the name of God. They searched for the scorpion with candle and lantern lights. They said that with every move of the scorpion the poison would increase in mother’s blood too. They prayed that the scorpion sits still and her sufferings decrease. More and more people came but the rain didn’t stop and the narrator’s mother kept on groaning with pain. The holy man was called who performed some rites and enchanted some mantras. The narrator’s father didn’t believe in all this so he made some powder with herbs and put it on the bitten area. He put paraffin on it and lit a flame there.
After twenty hours her pain had subsided. She only said that all should thank God that the scorpion had bitten her and spared her children.