The following poem by Gopikrishnan Kottoor from Trivandrum, Kerala won Ten Thousand Rupees in Wingword Poetry Prize 2026.
They move fast
each a small speed train
often alone, as just engines
and then as bogeys together.
On either side, they meet, greet,
stop, kiss, and move on
not one falling,
as they give way
not one falling,
the ones setting out, those returning
as though they know
all about one another
since long.
They are focussed, they seem to know why,
but where are they hurrying to,
and where do they all go
so urgently
and so desperately so,
the sunlight turning them red
into cinder glow.
Now, with such knowledge
of their kin and clan
it must be,
that somewhere unknown to us
they have a home
where they come together
to mourn
the loss of those who set out with them
and have not returned.