Roadtrip to Venus

By Sidhi Gupta

The beauty of her blood was too much for this timeline,

Life is a temporary poison, sinking deep within our skin

Prayed to a journal, a locket, your shrine is in the skies and in my bedroom

Read the tales of Homer, four syllables slicked over my tongue

Down on my knees, looking above

A marbled planet, a mosaic of seashells to the queen of the kingdom

Rev the engine and start driving there, 25 million miles more to go

I wonder if I’d recognise her, in a book I read her face changes like time

Aphrodite, would you mind blessing me?

Give all my diamonds and pearls, lit up like your planet

Clear the scars off of me like a shower after sand gets in my hair

Bleach me, I can’t get you off my mind,

Wish you could curse my face to look more like Helen of Troy

Maybe minus the exile, but I feel I’m an outlaw already,

Is a prayer still a prayer if my hands cover my face?

And I’ve gotten drunk on these blues, and sick on shadows

Felt naked in the light, but I’m not willing to cry

Burn the incense, bless me with beauty, evening star

I’m on a roadtrip to Venus, only 25 million miles more to go

By Sidhi Gupta