Perils of Clubbing

Posted on November 4, 2024 by akanksha gupta

My heart beats
Excitement thrums
It’s a different world
Here I come!

I tell myself
It will be different this time
But immediately,
Strobe lights
Frazzle my eyes
While DJ Dread Drum bleats
And music drowns beneath;
Encore breeds even more cacophony.

Malarkey’s depths barely let
My words break furore,
Regardless,
Every answering breath
Liquors mine unbearably more.

Still I smile
Still I groove
Be only as verbose
As it behooves

But no-one really
Sees through it all,
With bloodshot windows
Shuttering against soul

Lonely bodies
Seek pick-me-ups,
Busy bodies
Sell forget-me-knots,
Oblivion is a headiness;
It calls, enthralls

Throngs fall in deep
I too want to
Desperately see the appeal
But, I’m thoroughly appalled.
Did I age too quickly?
Was I born too late?
Why do I feel so old?
I try not to wonder at all

And though my ears bleed
And head spins
My heart still beats,
Evermore,
Staccato fatigued,
Eyes bruised,
Feet sore.

The comforts of hedonism
Discombobulate
And the consequences
Render rather insensate,
Then,
Nursing solitude
And an arrogant disdain,
I sit aside,
And contemplate.

– Akanksha Gupta

Eyes, Ears, Nose, Throat; Murder, She Wrote

Posted on June 3, 2024 by akanksha gupta

Every time I sneeze
Within and beyond
My morning allergies,
I feel like I am losing
A little piece of me.

Every time I cough
And irritate my palate
Irascibly rough,
I wonder when it’s going
To be enough.

Every time my sinuses
Swell up and clog
My passages,
Only time can soothe
The intractable ravages.

For pain is pain
And itch is itch –
Sharp or dull or faint – as such,
When all weapons fail,
The touch
Of familiarity
Becomes the de facto
Crutch.

– Akanksha Gupta

Mirror of Contempt

Posted on April 15, 2024 by akanksha gupta

Fires burn bright
Behind eyes shut tight,
Smoke spills regret
Sooted with fright.
The face of nightmares
Soddens with despair,
And dream curdling screams
Scald the seams of aftercare.

Reflections of Today

– Akanksha Gupta

Wicked

Something watches my soul
Something lingers in the cold
Something curls up in the corners
And peeks from between the folds

Everything heckles my haunts
Everything jostles my jaunts
Everything casts a shadow
That cackles, and croons, and taunts

Nothing remains untouched
Nothing changes all that much
Nothing even prickles the silence
That sutures a bygone grudge

⁃ Akanksha Gupta

Fanatic’s Pendulations

Posted on February 28, 2024 by akanksha gupta

Love is kind, love is good

Love is where you do not look

Hate is a self-scorned lover’s gruel

Bitter burnt and served al-cruel

Faith is fine, faith is coarse

Even when doubts scream hoarse

Fear is faith’s aggravated assault

That grows unchecked in imagined faults

Love stews, hate incites

Faith explains, fear ignites

Time still rows the oars of fate

Domino of choices disconsolate

– Akanksha Gupta

Onset of Illness

Posted on January 15, 2024 by akanksha gupta

I can breathe,
But with each breath
Unease
Sweeps through

Guts twist and churn,
Conscious thrums the chest
Off beat
At every turn

When empty,
Hunger gnaws
With claws
That painfully feed

When bloated,
Even the rot of despair
Clots
To never weep

And when breathless,
Though gusts of air
Flail piteously

I can still breathe

I can always breathe

But the still in the air
Waylays the mind
Distills the spirits
Consumes the soul

Dreary dispassion
Threatens
To possess
The body whole

Eventually, it weaves
A frighteningly hypnotic trance
That grips the unwitting senses
In its maddeningly deathless dance

– Akanksha Gupta

The Ghats of Varanasi

Posted on December 7, 2023 by akanksha gupta

Dip into History

Etched onto every crenulation
On either side of Ganga’s might,
A relic of truth - a piece of history
Mired in faith and legend and mystery
Resides; quietly, contently, reverently
Burning day and night fervently

Cremation

Waters brim with the black of night
Still with the cold of death
Weep endless ashes and dust, and yet
Echo the warmth of undying embers 
All reflective, quiet, solemn faced 
Sailing past Harishchandra, Manikarnika Ghats
Reverent and disquieted in equal parts

Sandhya Aarti

Melted drops of a long-gone sun
Burn the wick of every prayer
On the ghats
On the boats swarming the ghats
Mesmerising chants of song and dance
Fill the air

Breath mingles with oil and incense
Headiness of lights and sounds and scents
Harmony of Dasashwamedh and Ganga
Symphony of souls swept into an orchestra
Of carefree precision, of piety
Intoxicated with sobriety

As time crescendoes;
Halts to a moment,
Ensnares,
Dusk darkening, night lightening,
Heart tightening,
I wonder how aarti at dawn compares

– Akanksha Gupta

The Sarnath Effect

Posted on December 7, 2023 by akanksha gupta

*Our tour guide wove a brilliant narrative, adding to the reverential mysticism of our Sarnath experience*

Faith pours artistry into simple words
Conviction cauterises the beginnings of doubt
Wisdom lends belief to the beholder
Goosebumps brush tingles inside out

Richness of history delights the senses
Depth of knowledge astounds
Stories impress the spirit with wonders
Unearthed from ancient grounds

Wellsprings of sounds bloom in the chest
Rushing of conscious shuffles closer to mind
Peace combs through a restless strength
And waters the soul with wealth beyond time

– Akanksha Gupta

A Portrait of Time

Posted on July 22, 2023 by akanksha gupta

I will follow you into the dark
I will sup with an open mind
I will eat out my heart
The moments do not rewind

The kindness of time warms
The stills within my soul
And paints the dark and the heavy
With a light and lurid stroke

The night fire stokes my dreams
Casting reflections of the day
Spicy, salty, sour, sweet
Never could I want to stay

Sweet nothings fill the morning air
Cool blues smudge the red half-sun
I breathe in dewy undertones
Before time leaps into a run

– Akanksha Gupta

Shaky First Steps

Posted on July 21, 2023 by akanksha gupta

Smirking, the shards of your rainbow
Cut deep my days and my nights
Folding the blades of my elbows
I stare at the edge of alright

Reason curdles at my fingertips
Toes burrow into hot sands
Cold gains foothold in my stomach
Winds blow ice from distant lands

Flickering, the shadows gather
Black clouds dance in my sight
Rain pelts reality at blind spots
Whetting with caution my appetite

– Akanksha Gupta

Making History

Posted on July 21, 2023 by akanksha gupta

My bones are black
Chapped with the ashes of my past
They stack up like a house of cards
The soot dribbles from their sinews
No gust of wind can whisk asunder
The faith that bids them continue
And weave the tapestry of time –
Oh weave a tapestry of time
That steals all my blunder away
Until the victory is all mine
And I am the captain of my fate

Cobbled streets,
Paved roads,
Pedestrians abound,
En route to the
Ruins of St. Paul,
Macau

– Akanksha Gupta

I am

Posted on July 31, 2021 by akanksha gupta

I am what I am 
Exactly the way I am
Varnished, unvarnished, 
Tarnished by tide
I gleam in the morrow
Swim in the today
The night is nigh
Tomorrow is another day
And unlike yourself
You might find me staid
But I am happy to keep up
With me at my own pace

The race never dies
Fatigue sets in sometimes
And I kip in the boulevard 
Of my mind
There right across the corner
Between sun-kissed trees
Where the hammock stretches 
Oh so invitingly
I lie in thought
In waking dream
And knock upon my reveries

You knock upon my reveries
I curl, and sigh
And squeeze shut my eyes
But the reel escapes 
My memory
I groan and rise
You needn’t knock twice
Tomorrow has come
I know
Life beckons only once

– Akanksha Gupta