* Tippoo Sultan’s Tiger is an automata of a tiger eating a Sahib; it can be seen at the Victoria and Albert Museum

Sher Punjaaab – The Tiger of Punjab: many claim this epithet for themselves such as the mighty Ranjit Singh to present day musical groups and vigilantes, even colonialists such as Brigadier General John Nicholson toyed with this name when he called himself ‘the Lion of the Punjab’

Wound

to knock out a poem you rifle through your store of white-man Word, raring to blood your diction hoard swotted since kid at school, your jaw-is-brain mechanically charged (with penned hand) chewing the fat of the raw meat minty tongue that English

is

your wrought-up state where you won’t rest on each worked poem – each Tippoo-toy for the white man’s game, like galloping sahibs a-tiger hunting you whip up new lines to relive the race -related kick that sparks you up so you’re pouncing on beats so your eyes – burning – are Sher Punjaaab on the

rrrrraaaaaaaaaaaaj!!!