Nudes On The Beach

by Gopikrishnan Kottoor (April 2015)

Wet to their pink tips the golden women

Sit staring at the tossing blue waves

Frothing spring-foam; their fine wet

Symmetry slumped upon twinkling ilmenite

Under the lengthening shadows of the phallus

Rocks. Bright nipples glint like rose-studs

As they sink them deeper into the crested sands

Among the shine of pebbles and coloured dead shells.

Upon dumped footprints

The nudes breathe

Letting the bubbling foam rush quietly deep in-

To the deepening twilight zones of love.

 The nudes then gently rise,

Running down to the sea

Flaking away the tiny eels of water all over them,

As the dying sun strikes light

Beaded with smooth rosary of all the held-back tears

Of our living and longing by the crying seas;

Holding them lit, in dying orange hands

Awhile,

Beside the suddenly darkening waters.

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Gopikrishnan Kottoor recently brought out his eleventh collection of poems, Tell Me Neruda. He’ll shortly bring out his novel Hill House. He is working on his fourth play, King Marthandavarma and Devasahayam, set in the socio historic context, Kerala, South India, that focuses on the life and times of a Hindu nobleman executed by the king for his conversion to Christianity.

Kottoor’s awards for poetry include the All India Poetry Society- British Council Special  Prize for poetry. He won three more leading awards of the All India Poetry Society- British Council Poetry Competitions from 95 to 98. His poetry has appeared in Bloodaxe, Fulcrum, Orbis, Ariel, Plaza, Toronto Review, and other magazines. He edits the poetry ezine  www.undergroundflowers.com, a poetry quarterly. His book of poems Father, Wake in Passing, translated into German, was read on invitation across universities in Europe.

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