Please come to my farewell party
I was lost in my own loneliness.
But now I’m happy,
I’m free
I remember you, yes,
how I wished to hold your hand,
until the wide world left.
Come to my farewell party.
Yes, this is my special invitation to you,
with whom I walked the cemeteries
together reading , laughing,
pondering over the sullen epitaphs
filled with wet roses, and all that grass,
and no more, never again sorrow.
Come to my farewell party.
There’ll strawberry cream,
rose apples,
And everything we once were together
When dreams were as dreams should be,
between lips that haunted us
binding as rosary,
and would not leave until the tears.
Come to my farewell party.
Bring that tiny bird of joy
we’ll pierce on a skewer
and enjoy
its burnt wings
over the festival fire.
.
Gopikrishnan Kottoo
Picture Nick Victor
Bio
Gopikrishnan Kottoor’s poems have been featured in Acumen,UK Nth Position, UK, Shot Glass Journal, US, Rising Phoenix, US, Mud season Review, US, Eunoia, ( Singapore) Plaza, Japan, Arabesques, Ariel( Canada) International Times, Best Asian Poetry, Singapore, Penguin RH,
(India) Bloodaxe,(UK) among various. He has multiple national prizes for his poetry such as the AIPC and , Chandigarh Literary Festival poetry prizes, and an Augsburg Residency. He founded Poetry Chain. He was awarded the Kala Samman Prize for Poetry, 2026.
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