Bittersweet Reckoning
By Swati Moheet Agrawal

 

I want to sometimes leave the busy commotion of my mind,
abandon my desires,
I want to turn off the workings of memory and anticipation,
I want to sometimes latch on to the present moment
as if it’s the only one that really matters.

 

I want to nap in a patch of sunlight,
savour a delicious meal,
smell fresh herbs,
I want to get excited about the full moon,
rejuvenate with the calm of the stars,
I want to find solace in sunsets,
I want to read, I want to devour the giants of literature,
the magician of magicians -
Zola, Balzac, de Goncourt,
and I want to write with the enthusiasm of a Marseilles sitting down to his bouillabaisse.

 

Many times in life
I have been a victim of my own optimism.

 

I wonder if it is okay to sail through life
with no greater ambition than to be a phenomenal mother.
To find beauty and meaning in domesticity, to be invested in it wholeheartedly.
To find the transcendent in the everyday.
To embrace the talent for living.

 

Swati Moheet Agrawal is a poet from India. When she is not mollycoddling her baby girl, she spends time writing in her favourite coffee shop. A poet and writer, her work has appeared in Muse India, Setu, Active Muse, The The Alipore Post, Modern Literature, Indian Periodical, Potato Soup Journal, Rhodora Magazine, Friday Flash Fiction, Ariel Chart, Thimble Lit Mag and The Criterion among other literary magazines and journals.