Tuiloo
Tuiloo! Vaskar's mother calls
And Tuiloo comes running.
Tuiloo's mother loves her liquor
His father loves his.
So Tuiloo has no father or mother
Liquor fathers no one. It only orphans.
So Vaskar's mother is Tuiloo's mother.
She mothers everyone. She is mothered out.
Tuiloo helps her cook and clean.
But he's more outside than inside: making a paper kite,
trying to fly it; pumping air into a football, trying to kick it.
Tuiloo is only three feet tall, very black and thin.
He looks like a wizened chimp.
He eats raw mango, doesn't wash and gets zits.
He's from the jungles of Chota Nagpur.
You can take Tuiloo out of the jungle.
But you can't take the jungle out of Tuiloo.
Sparrows, mynahs, frogs, snails, even monitor lizards are his prey.
Mosquitoes prey on him.
At night he swaddles himself in a mosquito net.
By morning he's ready to play.
Vaskar loves him. But for me Tuiloo only has a surprised stare.
Tuiloo doesn't know what a teacher is.
Tuiloo doesn't go to school.
He teaches himself and will make his way in a world devoid of all jungle.