Lock and Key

Lurking in the depths of my soul
The hunger unfettered, growls and roars

I grab it tight with both my arms
With fingers unclenched from clammy palms

Yet fear threatens to swallow all sound
The muted ringing of silence surrounds

I dare not open my eyes, and stare
Into the very eyes of despair

On a face that could so easily mirror my own
Had it not been wildly unkempt and so very old

Dazed, startled, I uncurl again, and again glimpse
The future that spins anew with every blink

~ Akanksha Gupta (poem)

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ARCHITECTURE

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The Inspiration For “Architecture”

Look at me
I’m a marble masterpiece
Sublime, serene and standing tall
Stained with the fumes of yesteryears
The past dredges up against my shores
But at the core
I’m a mausoleum
Whose walls are lined with memoirs
And the weight of each word within
Settles encoffined upon my breath
Entombing the truth indoors
Like a whisper lost in the abyss
Like a skeleton buried forevermore
Yet at the fore
With practiced ease
My smile stretches to meet your own
And I let its gaze
Graze the contours of my face
Wondering all the while
If I’d have preferred it to penetrate
Past the grandeur of my turrets
To the Pietra Dura inlays
The very reflections of your soul within me
Or to the desolate cenotaphs
The carcasses of my past
Laid bare to your scrutiny
I wonder if, then,
I would have smiled
Or welcomed your expression within mine
But as I shallowly gaze upon
The great expectations in yours eyes
I savor the naiveté of my thoughts
Having realized
That as much as my soul
May be shuttered to your own
Twice more
It is to mine

– Akanksha Gupta (poem)

THE ERA OF NARCISSISTS

Every day I look at you

Are you ‘you’ or ‘me’?

The more I look the more I feel

Like drowning into thee

 –

The ocean is too full of salt

The pond full of algae

The river neither is enough

To contain the vanity

 –

“O Mirror, Mirror where are you”

T’is a charming irony

Those that wish to find you not

Are the ones blessed by thee

 –

In their eyes I see myself

Reflected differently

Am I the way they look, or

The way I look, at me?

 –

The answer is too simple

Yet they cannot see

Permanently are they blinded

Thus narcissistic-ally?

 –

“O Mirror, Mirror on the wall

Does beauty speak of me?”

First the Queen, then Narcissus

A fairytale reality

– Akanksha Gupta