Aditya Shankar

Aditya Shankar (Bangalore, India) has published poetry, flash fiction, and translations in journals and anthologies worldwide. He is a multiple-time nominee for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net. His poetry collections include After Seeing (2006), Party Poopers (2014), and XXL (2018), the latter shortlisted for the Sahitya Akademi Yuva Puraskar. He is also the author of the translated volume Tiny Judges Shall Arrive (2021). His short films have been screened at international film festivals and nominated for animation awards. His latest collection, How to Extract Breath from a Machine, is forthcoming from Dhauli Books.

Easy read of the poem in the image above:

The Spiritual Life of My Lust

My lust seeks a private spiritual life,
Embracing the chaste companionship
of a cherished part—the hollow of a throat,
a collarbone’s ridge, a mole on the hand.
It wears devotion like a personal emblem,
pondering, why not unearth the charm
that lurks behind our tranquil facades?
My desire floods the ordinary,
spills into vacant halls,
craving more than climax at its zenith.
Perhaps it aims to remind us all, and itself—
I am no slave to carnal need.
At times, it discards its adult gaze
and relishes blueberries and dark chocolate
without concern for erections or release.
Yesterday, it professed that true love transcends
the organs it has kissed, licked, or caressed.
It adds that a journey from one beloved form
to another is a sacred pilgrimage.
For the love existing within
mating mechanical components
to endure eternally, it offers a prayer—
Isn’t it nearly divine that when two flanges embrace,
we marry them off as husband and wife,
and when a lock finds its key,
something inevitably unfolds?