INVASIVE
The stench of our days
on our skin
and dripping from these old leaves
in the rainforest —
diesel breath, city-vapour,
polythene wraps that melt
like easy cheese in the dump,
sticky in the sun.
Animals sense it hanging dense
in the air, the guide informs.
From the jeep we count
our game —
a sambar bolting from the trail,
white-rumped vultures on the Irul,
like avian art on a monument arch,
a peacock tail folding in the undergrowth.
Ask him about the Senna trees,
she nudges me,
ask him whether he knows
they are invasive.
Jyotish Chalil Gopinathan is a nephrologist, clinician-educator, and researcher based in Kozhikode. His debut poetry collection, The Coppiced House, was followed by Almanac of the Sickle Moon. His poems have appeared in several journals and magazines as well as anthologies, including the Yearbook of Indian Poetry in English 2024-25.
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