Three Poems by Gopi Kottoor

 

Today

A day,

Sixty years ago

Rises in my mind,

Revolving

On a 45 rpm

Vinyl record,

The morning newspaper

Caught like a giant butterfly

On a rose thorn

Piercing the black and white photograph

Of Nehru,

With the news of his death

That I carefully disengaged

To surprise father

Still asleep,

My mother's hand

Across his chest

Moving to his breath

a quiet wing at rest

And the song,

Jaane kahan

Gaye woh din...

turning,

gently

in a mist of morning roses,

Coming to a dead end.

 

The Flowering

 

I must not write

Verses tonight.

But the temptation is too strong

Because your picture

Is still in my mind.

And if I write,

Sending me back

To the gallows

Of yester nights,

Where grew the creepers

Their mysterious flowers

Altering our lives.

I must not write

Anymore verses tonight.

All the world knows

That  if I do

It'll  be about you.

You know it too,

That you send me to the flowering

Gallows every night

You who left me

Like changing light.

 

Cuckoo Clock

 

Your lips

Shut,

A cuckoo in a cuckoo clock.

Too soon, too fast.

Your laughter

Ticks to a standstill.

What time is it now?

Not too sure,

But it is

Yesterday again.

Gopi Kottoor has a poetry Blog https://gopikrishnan kottoor.blogspot.com. He edits the online poetry journal www.chipmunk.co.in