Albino Turtles / Half-caste by Jyotish Chalil Gopinathan

Albino Turtles

On tiptoes, my little one
leaned into the concrete tank,
squealed at the different one,
a bent index jabbing
at the unusual silver-blue
of the painted tank —
the colour that lurks
in murky moonstones.
The absent colour on the shell
glared back at us.
You are the last ones for the day,
the minder shrugged. The albino turtle is rare,
one in thousands, a million, she said,
it would never survive its sea,
and any darkness
a deep blue might conceal.
I took a picture, and in its frame,
on the still ripples of transparent
water, our reflections were caught,
my son laughing, and I
watching, in my half-caste skin.




Half-caste

Half-caste I, my face
rarely blotched,
my eyes as serene as colour zoned
amethyst crystals, I stand like
a weed stalk waiting
for the push-pull hoe
in the church hall, drenched
by the sermon, insides
quivering ever so slightly, yet
they only see that I don’t
cross myself when I should have,
and their eyes flicker
with the question,
Did his mother not teach him?

Jyotish Chalil Gopinathan is a nephrologist, clinician-educator, and researcher based in Kozhikode, India. His debut poetry collection, The Coppiced House (Writers Workshop, Kolkata, 2024), was followed by Almanac of the Sickle Moon (Hawakal Publishers, 2025). The Coppiced House received the Kala Prathibha Award at the Kala Literature Awards 2026.