by Gopikrishnan Kottoor
line-height:115%;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">
line-height:115%;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">
line-height:115%;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The blue
hyacinths that he'd brought from Bangkok,
line-height:115%;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">stood on the
black earthen vase.
line-height:115%;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Bangkok was the
only outside place father had been to.
line-height:115%;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">He said
Bangkok was like heaven.
line-height:115%;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The cloth
hyacinths were his symbol
line-height:115%;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">of long distance
travel, his kind of heaven
line-height:115%;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">that he had earned, at
last.
line-height:115%;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Every night the smoke
curls from his last
line-height:115%;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">night cigarette,
circled them like thick mist
line-height:115%;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">and soon the cloth
hyacinths reeked of tobacco dust.
line-height:115%;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Father adored his
hyacinths. He would secretly
line-height:115%;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">water them with
the longing look in his eyes
line-height:115%;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">and kept them on his
desk
line-height:115%;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">by the OUT file box.
line-height:115%;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">That was until his eyes
closed. As he lay
line-height:115%;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">in the hospital, in coma,
the petals
line-height:115%;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">back home began
to lose their shine,
line-height:115%;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">not knowing his
watering eyes,
line-height:115%;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">his tobacco mouth.
line-height:115%;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">It seemed prepared for
what
line-height:115%;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">would be. And
the day after death
line-height:115%;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">circled father,
line-height:115%;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">mother kept his
passport beside them
line-height:115%;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">and his photograph.
line-height:115%;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">It was the perfect
trio,
line-height:115%;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">perfect, as though
mother,
line-height:115%;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> she knew
the power
line-height:115%;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">of the blue hyacinths
of Bangkok
line-height:115%;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">in silent long distance
symphony
line-height:115%;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">by his watering eyes
line-height:115%;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">beside the blank
passport pages.
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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 May 28, 2012