Three poems by Akila G.

(As Cecile Oumhani and I join the editorial team of Caesurae Column, we present to you Akila G's exquisite poetry. Through the pandemic as our theme stands to be: resilience, Akila, through her poems, uses metaphors to caricature the metaphysics of existence, as she stretches epiphanies on short and long phrases of abstraction to reach silent deliberative moments in rhythmic self-confession. - Rochelle Potkar)

Donald Tong, Pexels

1.

Our Hopes

like the Tanjore doll

her body, head and hands

in mudra, swaying with a gentle push

to her dome skirt.

You taught me to wrap it

in a cone-shaped paper

stuff the hollow spaces

with crumpled bits, what if

we lose the rhythm

to a broken hook?

I never learnt the way

you wanted me to;

tracing your nubile veins

tugging your skin in amoebic shapes.

Now

you do not glow–

er at my (packing) abilities

nor do you rub the fall of light

in your eyes,

as if you have learnt

to drift into my world

when you see the little doll

rhyming with its shadow.

@thiszun, Pexels

2.

Coping

Toss veggies, slice fruits

pour out recipes for pouring out

clack the red plastic bangles

roll roti, round them with conjunctions

(a loop)

sip details

like coffee with newspaper

(including silences)

gather syllables

without faces, bodies

let the skin

stretch like a fisherman’s net

toss it over the blue expanse

with other things.

pixabay, Pexels

3.

Daily Targets

From an incessant chatter

dribbling from the bamboo grove

you borrow a frail hum

threads of a memory

run staccato – an abstract

trebles, trembles

dispersing cacophonic notes

there is no harmony in fear

you turn inside a soundproof box hoping

tomorrow will find a way

back to where you belong, until then

you tie them to your feet

listen to them upside down.

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 and a few of them are forthcoming. 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.