Poetry: G. Akila

G. Akila
Sea Shells Shelved on the Sea Shore 

Fear flows like water
you don't know
its origin, the end, 
nor its path

It evolves
with the ebb and tide
of routine –
dress, dessert, dreams 

You don't know
which one went out
first 

This morning you dug deeper
the way we were,
in the old album 

hands held, skirts clutched,
crumpled at the knee 
shells pocketed between toes

We were sure
of taking them all
into our world of boxes
label them
with the whiff of seas

You gargle,
wash the salt off your lips
clear the throat
of all possibilities of finding the lost.
***


Fluidity

Memories float
when words slip from tongues

We roll them in and out
of our heads, often with a hand
on the chest;
pain has no colour or taste
like water

I dive
without swimming lessons
spread out arms to search
for some aching bones, a nerve twitched–
our definitions of pain

You sketch a blue boat for me
like the one in Kanchipuram
for a closer look of the brown ocean of my shore 
turning green and blue of yonder
…a mirage

the ink melts in your eyes.
***


G.Akila has presented her poetry at Sahitya Akademi, Hyderabad Litfest, Goa Litfest, TedX – VNRVJIET, Hyderabad. Her poems have also found a home in reputed online and print anthologies. Her poems ‘Stains’ was shortlisted for the Womeninc Sakhi Award 2018 and ‘Graphite from a Traveller’s Notepad’ for the Glasshouse Poetry Festival Contest 2020. She also engages in the Japanese forms of haiku, tanka and haibun.

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