Tag Archives: instinct

Positing the Positive

Posted on by akanksha gupta

Hong Kong Disneyland, 2023

Fear feeds all paranoia
Till comfort of safety aches
Greed spells a reckless hunger
That ferociously salivates

Is that hope
That drives them both?
Is it a sense of purpose?
What is life without either –
Identity in crisis?

Complacency cannot win growth
When survival is a race
When that blackhole of belonging
Is scrounging for a place

And even then, to save
What little is left to lose,
Pessimism is a tool
That optimists are wont to use

Positivity does not preclude
The realities of daily warfare
It simply carries with grace
Any face I choose wear

– Akanksha Gupta

Between Apathy and Empathy

Posted on by akanksha gupta
Seac Pai Van Park, Coloane, Macau

Restlessness clings to the air
It blows far and wide,
Soul searching through the depth of stars
That glint past their eventide

The wind picks, strays, soars
Gently ebbs, gently flows
And the heart thumps a minute a mile,
Yet it is time that stops
Slows and steadies, to stand and stare awhile

The promises of a fickle mind
Five-minute fame that would not rewind
A corruption that unwittingly creeps
Excuses that ooze and gape and weep

They clothe whispers borne of prejudice
With sunsets that judgment did not miss
And with a kiss of nightmare on sleep’s brow
From the hangman stood bloodied but unbowed

A garden, unfettered, sows and grows
The guilt that gnarls a crow’s crow,
There the callouses of weary souls
Have long since culled care’s hold

But when the illusion shatters solitude
And pieces of sanity unhinge and elude
Then care takes roots anew, again
Upon each ponderous now and then



– Akanksha Gupta

Preception

Posted on by akanksha gupta

Unbidden
The thoughts of yesterday
Threaten to drown me
And I’m reminded
There’s a fine line
Between careless and carefree

Those who
Throw caution to the winds
Yet come out smelling like roses
Know we’re accustomed
And inured
To our own play of ignorance

Those who
Mince words, measure thoughts
Yet are censured for every gesture,
Unknowingly let them out
In their voice, in their eyes
And in their posture

Justice is blind
But Judgment is deaf
And while Reason is neither
It sputters when
Truth is mute
And Instinct has taken over

– Akanksha Gupta

Gone With The Wind

Posted on by akanksha gupta

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The sands of time
Are slipping through my fingers,
Their lingering heat
In my bones
Makes me want to hold on
For a few moments longer,
To recapture and savour
The bygones,
I chase the winds
That carry those sands on their wings,
But as they gradually drop and cease to be
My legs give way, I stop
And unsteadily sway
In anticipation of a fall,
But soon I’m sinking
Into a quicksand of memories.
Alarmed, I grope for an anchor,
But my hold on reality is tenuous
At best, and ephemeral,
And furthermore
The panic-induced struggle
Only serves to tighten the jaws of sand;
Oh, I’d now give anything
For them to slip past the palms of my hands.
This realization, this epiphany
Is a moment of lucidity
Whence I regain my sanity
And my mind pushes back the instinct;
Calmly, I desist fretting
And free myself from the quicksand.
Now, walking towards land,
I feel the winds picking up momentum
And forcing the sands
To slip through my fingers;
Once again,
I relish in the heat
That lingers, and move on
Toward newer pastures.
– Akanksha Gupta