by Gopikrishnan Kottoor
Dear Leaf,
Up in the tree, what were you waving at?
Of course you were hiding birds, you let
The red ant stumble upon you with his prized dead bee.
And you held the breeze twirling
in your lifeline, and blushed in the evening rain.
All that you did well. You took a longing look
Wondering if the sun
Would keep loving you until the end of time. I know you
Did that, you had your problems and doubts
If love would after all be true until then.
And so today when I walked beneath you,
I did not care that
you had turned red so soon.
And that you were waiting, waiting for me
To come by. There is
no disgrace dear,
Losing to the sun, the wind and rain,
the last raiment of your breath
We all do, we always do. Like you thought
If you broke away from the tree
You could fly away.
A new life breathless in the long arms of the river
and that there would be love again there.
Or upon the stone,
and its hard caress . But then like the others,
love simmered in the distance,
and as you leaned out to touch,
you fell.
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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.
