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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Setu, April 2021 :: Icebergs in the Mind: Memory, Dream and Desire