Gopikrishnan Kottoor
The night stirs hunched, gremlined to our wet bones.
The sea hits harder against the stern rocks.
Where do we go from here
Now that we have reached mid ocean?
The catamaran whips salt in our naked faces
As your parched throat opens its gull beak
Blowing dark feathers all over my face
For your spoonfuls of grains in my crying hand.
Your mouth turns a wasted kiss
Lost in its sad season of wounds
Where we long to forget
The shadows that have tied us.
But there comes a time.
A time to forget
The cities that burn us in,
Lit with luminous tears
Among sad fireflies breaking their small fires
In the gathering darkness of our nights.
And in the symphony of my receding hand,
I watch your staring eyes drift past the window,
Slipper the trodden sails in the rain
In a catwalk of starlessness
Razoring the long clear weather.