2 poems by Spriha Kant inspired by Anne Sexton

Author’s Notes:

"A Downward Spiral" is inspired by Anne Sexton's poem "The Addict"I added the reason leading to drug addiction and the person responsible for it, and also his role and response to knowing about the addiction. However, I was highly inspired by the details that Sexton gave about her addiction phase so I followed my inspiration, again, I opted to choose my way of expression different from Sexton's in this case since I wanted my soul to linger in this poem.        

" A Marred Loyalty" is inspired by Anne Sexton's poem "For my lover returning to his wife"   The difference is that I didn't put the role of a wife in a man's life in my poem and extended it to the next levels; the betrayal by a man to a woman and the outcome of the affair
which was becoming the mother of that man's child. & also I wrote the intimate details of that affair that weren't in Sexton's poem. So, I took the "affair" theme from this poem and directed it. That's because I wanted to show inspiration but also didn't wanna lose my originality.

A DOWNWARD SPIRAL

To induce my mind 
to turn a deaf ear to the 
reverberations of 
your taunts
on my unsuccessful career 
I blended in with a flock of wild-spirited dancers 
Emitted smoke through my mouth 
Consumed a peg of alcohol and a snort of cocaine
in that late-night party
and my body 
kept on augmenting to
the dependency on the doses of 
serotonin, endorphins, dopamine, and nicotine
for survival.
Cigarette wrapping papers, pipes, syringes, soiled cotton swabs, cut-up straws, lighters, bongs, razor blades, burnt spoons, burnt bottle caps, and cut-up lined mirrors started depositing like algal blooms in my bedroom.

Mercurial temperament and kaleidoscopic hallucinations often grasped me with their glutinous grips for extraordinarily long hours.
Doses reigned over the production of my melatonin hormone recklessly.

Whenever I tried to untether myself 
from the tenacious grips of narcotics:
Nausea greeted me each morning
My body burned in aches 
I oscillated between hot and cold every few minutes
Intense cravings shimmied in my body
compelling me 
to take any of them that I could lay my hands on.

Bloodshot covered my scintillating eyes like a quilt.
Unkempt appearance cloaked my elegance.
Slurred vocal cords took over my melodious vocal cords.
Bad breaths and unusual body odours glued to me.

You, busy basking in your success 
never noticed all the messes encompassing me.

When the messes barged out of control
you sent me to the rehabilitation centre
but you did not even visit me there once.

When I recovered 
you left me saying,
“You tarnished my reputation.”
But you did not wonder why and how I was trapped in that downward spiral.

A MARRED LOYALTY

I was attracted like an iron piece to a magnetic charm.
Constant friendly gazes and WhatsApp chats
shaped to 
watching cinemas, casual long drives, and dinner dates
leading to
a late-night tryst where I swam in a passionate sea with him:
Romantic chats 
Sips of beers
Wetting of parched lips 
Duet by the tied tongues
Crawling like snakes in
birthday suits 
with 
deep sighs 
to crescendoed deep trills
inside a thin white sheet.

His marred loyalty 
is swelling inside my womb.
As for him, women are sand dunes.
And he 
a windstorm 
who impersonates sun
till the quench of his sensual thirst. 




Bio: Spriha Kant is a poetess and book reviewer. She has been published in six anthologies out of which the anthology “Hidden in Childhood” became the #1 Amazon bestselling book. She has been a part of events celebrating the launches of the poetry books “Nature Speaks of Love and Sorrow” by Jeff Flesch and “As FolkTaleTeller” by Paul Brookes. She has been featured in interviews on feversofthemind.com and brokenspine.co.uk. Her quotes have been published as an epigraph and a blurb in the books “Magkasintahan Volume VI” and “Swiped Right” respectively, both books published by the publishing house “Ukiyoto Publishing (Philippines).” She has been a guest of honor in the award-winning show “Victoria in Verse” on Bloomsbury Radio, London.