ORBITS

object poem, M P Pratheesh, 2021

materials used: body of a millipede, shell, butterfly wings, canvass

A millipede. A coiling serpent. The lines over the snail’s shell. The brown ring around my
nipple. The circle made of flower petals in my front yard. The orbit of celestial bodies. Our
endless journeys centred around a faraway star. Every object and being carries its orbital marks.
Like the marks of a silent dance.

(Translated from malayalam by CS Venkiteswaran )

---

M.P. Pratheesh is a poet and artist lives and works in Kerala,India. He has published ten collections of poetry in Malayalam language. His poems and object poems have been appeared at various places including Singing in the dark (Penguin), Greening the earth (forthcoming from Penguin,2023) RlC journal, Tiny seed, Indianapolis Review, kavyabharati, Nationalpoetrymonth.ca(Angelhouse press), The bombay Review, Keralakavitha, Guftugu, Acropolis, Osmosis, True copy, Indian Literature and elsewhere. His recent books of…