Utkarsh Mani Tripathi
The poem was first published in The Aleph Review, Vol. 6 (2022).
My head is a jar of bolognese
My ear is a cornucopia, my
Eyes empty conches that roar
Of the sea, silt and salt, my
Nose is two furrows unearthed
By conniving moles, and
My jugular is a national highway
Riven in angry blares and
Given to excesses of mania
My hair parts in the middle of
My skull and divides history
Into the greyish and the white
Epochs. My clavicle is a porcelain
Bridge, stretched across my shallow
Chest, which nestles and jostles
Above Jupiter’s storms contained
In my belly. My celestial rump
Pulses like a distant star, and carves
Into my knee, surreally sharp,
And my calves are a silent mystic
River. My nails house the fragments
Of my enemies, and the bridge of my nose
Supports military transport. Once in
A while I like to fantasize about my back
This sashaying caricature of sand dunes
Frayed fabric on my spine. If a miniature
Adventurer were to travel on me, I would be
Ticklish
And pray it away, take a deep breath, O traveller
And leap and soar above
And tell me if you can see the blemish
The sunburn, the sand-graze or the thousand cuts.
Utkarsh Mani Tripathi is a poet from New Delhi, India. He contributes articles on culture for The Punch Magazine and frequents poetry circles in Delhi and Hyderabad. He also moonlights as a student of law and the humanities.
About the featured artist: Qurutulain Dar, born in a small city of northern Punjab, attained successive scholarships throughout her undergraduate years at the College of Art and Design, graduating with distinction in 2019. Since then, she has participated in several physical and virtual shows, including at O Art Space, Full Circle Gallery, National Museum of Tanzania, Dominion Gallery, The World Bank Resident Mission, Islamabad, Zaaman Art and Khamsa Art. Through her realistic art with its surrealist undertones, she blurs the line between fact and fiction and creates a reality of her own which questions belief systems and explores dense internal human desires and conflicts. The artist currently lives and works in Lahore.