Erasures
By Gopikrishnan Kottoor
I can take a hundred births
for your love denied to me
after the sky - high waking.
A hundred births to be with you
whom I'll still not know,
the way you let me kiss you
and erased all my kisses.
Erasures come in many forms.
They tie and untie
and leave you tied;
I hold your river to me
flowing downtide.
A hundred years,
a hundred births
will not enough for me
and I'll not be enough,
I must be no more ever more,
evermore, more and more
no more to you
who was so close
as lavender over dew.
A hundred years more
To sit down and cry
for your closeness that turned
a humming bird to fly.
Gopikrishnan Kottoor has published his poems in magazines such as Acumen, Nfth review, Orbis, Eunoia Review, Rising Phoenix, Mud Season Review, Plaza, The Illustrated Weekly of India, Ariel, Indian Literature, among others. His poetry has been included in anthologies such as Best Asian Poetry, Penguin Random House Poetry anthology, Bloodaxe,Fulcrum, Verse Seattle, Yearbook of Indian Poetry, among others. He has won awards for his poetry from the British Council. His latest book of poems is ' This Small Town.'He lives in Kerala, India