The Martian

By Atraiu Gupta

I coated in cloudless raindrops, i submerge...

within the feathers of ravens— plucked from,

my hollowed eyes— that once carried visions of,

lifeless limbs intertwined over forgotten footfalls,

rising underneath the moonless midnight;

alongside the branched ivy that secedes silent kisses.

under alleys of swirling silver sand

i walk alongside tales that sunk eons ago,

yet once they had arisen beneath a diadem of melancholia—

to conquer unburnt desires of our beheaded past.

(one hundred eighty three days before…)

II

in times of frugal turmoil, our citadel plunged deep in a cavern of chaos—

within the strings of a man’s heart,

and another’s, and another’s and another’s

lies desire— raw and unbounded, clawing to erupt out.

from the scars and pores of skin, it drenched the unalive eyes

of masses with numb ears, who believed in the twisted air

that left man’s mouth and went into another’s.

(for it was the time to rejoice— mankind had discovered space travel,

to mars, was the first mission.)

for decades had i dreamt of this moment,

the pursuit of scarlet soil, out in the realm of shadows

from my home, beyond the view of an eye, out in space—

out in the nothing that entraps everything.

and in hushed promises, my words faded away.

within tremors of the land above the seas,

and smoke that curled up the rods of metal,

that stood tall against the tumbling rays of sun—

i stood at the helm of a glimpse of uncertainty.

a rush of vertigo enveloped me,

unbounded i became, from this warped gravity

and up in with the clouds i went,

carrying the floating desire in my sternum and blood.

(6 months later…)

III

for the past hundred and eighty four days,

have i been listening to the malicious manifestations

of desire scorching the heaps of metals,

that once were the core of the men living down by the by-ways.

had i bridged the threads of existence,

just to see doom rain in my world?

within the cradles of denial and rage,

i crumpled apart in fragments of disbelief.

the world i lived for, has died today—

left with no cause, I ran away from the scarlet dust,

inhaling fear with every breath, and breathing out,

slivers of my soul, embodied within the shreds of a dream gone wrong.

walk away i did, just to see the death of dawn of another day—

and thus began the end of me; and the rise of the Martian…

IV

once exiled, now i return to the vanquished crown

that broke like the chandeliers which hung over

dead corpses that feasted on the renegade memories

which once coloured the deep ends, of my split skin.

within the ripples and waves of immersed water,

i waddle amidst the echoes of torn bones and shattered skulls.

their lost voices called me a traitor; a betrayer; a Martian…

By Atraiu Gupta