by Gopikrishnan Kottoor
The trees above them are dark with green.
It is summer. Birds have flown away in search of grub.
Hot buds wait to break with puberty. The children. Holding hands, With the sunshine on their lips they are going to school. Soon, they'll learn their lessons of earth and its motion, of God who hid Adam among the sad curved boughs, of Eve who got beneath with Satan's red apple.They'll grow their hair long before they wear away, mirroring their teacher's words that nakedness is sin. They'll know why. And, when the children return after school running naked for shelter in the night rain, treading upon dead petals under their feet, the buried roots clawing their castled blood would haveave turned the trees, the leaves, All red.
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ABOUT THE POET ~
Born (1956), Trivandrum, Kerala, India., Winner, All India Poetry Prizes, Poetry Society, India-British Council Awards (96, 97, 98), and other leading poetry prizes. Poetry published in Ariel (Canada), Orbis (UK), Nth Position (UK), Bluefifth Review (UK), Toronto Review (Canada), The Illustrated Weekly of India, Kavya Bharati (India), Fulcrum (USA), Verse, Seattle, (USA), Indian Literature, Arabesque Review, Plaza (Japan), Chandrabhaga (India), and others. Founder editor, Poetry Chain. Participant, MFA, Texas state University, (2000) Poet in Residence, Augsburg University, Germany (2004). Important works : Poetry : Father, Wake Us In Passing, (German Translation, Wolfgang Heyder) A Buchenwald Diary, Mother Sonata, Victoria Terminus, Poems Selected and New (2010). The Coloured Yolk of Love (2012). Drama: Fire In The Soul The Mask of Death. Novel : A Bridge Over Karma (Novel). Poetry included in The Bloodaxe book of Contemporary Indian Poetry In English, The Golden Jubilee Anthology of Post Independence Indian poetry In English, and Poetry Society, India anthologies.
Last updated June 08, 2012