Gopikrishnan Kottoor
This black snake
Will not leave my mind.
It was gliding, under cover,
Perhaps just going back home
When I spotted it again.
There, I said
And the snake killer
Ready with his iron pipe
Brought down the weapon
Upon its flowing midrib
Crumbling it into two.
His hood looked as though
He knew no pain,
But I knew, he was reeling, struck.
He tossed him up
Alive, his beauty of skin and hood, and all that pain,
Borne in silence.
There was a fire near
For old clothes, and dead paper,
And he took him breathing in his rod,
And spooned him
Into the flames.
Ah. That lust of fire.
When that fire died,
I searched for him.
In those ashes
There was no differentiation,
Whatever was burning,
Or had burned this way,
That quiet little face
Gliding towards home
That silence in all that burning and pain,
And me, thinking
CHRIST, my CHRIST
is it really you again?
Gopikrishnan Kottoor (b. 1965) is an Indian poet from the state of Kerala. A poet of international repute, his most cherished works include poetry collections Piccolo, Milestones to the Sun, Sunbirds in the Rain, Nirvana and Other Poems, Rev: Father Benedict Goes To Heaven and Other Poems, Tell Me Neruda and Painters of Evening. He has also penned a few plays and novels. Mr. Kottoor has edited A New Book of Indian Poems in English, and Poetry Chain – A Poetry Quarterly since 1997. He lives in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala.