✦ The Simba Series — Poem II

Simba's Basin

On adaptation, simplicity, and a black pug who solved summer long before the rest of us figured out anything at all.

🐾 Simba 💧 Kerala Summer ✍ Antony Ancil 📍 Kollam, Kerala May 2026
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✦ THE SIMBA SERIES
I — What Simba Knows II — Simba's Basin

In summer he climbs into his bowl

not to drink

but to become the water.

A small black pug

cooling himself the only way he knows —

completely.

No complaint.

No explanation.

Just adaptation.

I keep the basin clean for him.

Fresh water every morning.

A small blue bowl on the Kerala floor —

his private solution

to a problem the world

didn't bother solving for him.

Then the rain came.

The monsoon arrived the way it always does —

without asking.

And Simba stepped out of the basin.

Shook himself dry.

Looked at me

with those flat, serious eyes

as if to say —

problem solved.

I have been trying to learn

that kind of simplicity

for fifty seven years.

Simba — black pug
Simba — the philosopher
Full black pug. Kollam, Kerala. Sits in his water basin all summer. Steps out when it rains. Has never once complained about anything.
Antony Ancil — idivet
30 years UAE. Back in Kollam, still learning from a pug. Founder of Venad Global Consultancy. Watching the monsoon arrive through a window while Simba shakes himself dry.