Rolling, Digging and Tunnelling

    Sukarma Thareja
    @Sukarma-Thareja
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    0 Likes | 2 Views | Sep 12, 2024403014 | 4287

    I was asleep
    when a copper-coloured beetle touched my feet.
    Strongest insect that fondly eats
    our planet’s daily waste.
    Rolling, digging and tunnelling dung,
    it sings songs of life with balls of dung.
    Forwards and backwards into balls,
    Rolling, rolling spheres of manure,
    picking-up seeds at every turn.
    Moving, dispersing and fertilizing
    seeds on-the-move by rolled dung balls.
    Digging, digging to bury those balls.
    A store of moisture, a harvest of food.
    A safe abode and nursery,
    brooding babies, all-in-a-ball.
    Tunnelling, tunnelling, spreading that dung,
    repeatedly changing the texture of soil.
    Porosity, quality, germination
    all get better where dung beetles dwell.
    Egyptians and Adivasi knew
    the values of these scarab saviours.
    So keep these achievers in the loop,
    revere those scavenging beetle troops,
    cleaning up our planet’s poops