My heart takes a lifetime to plunge.
Cold waters await.
Is it worth it?
Freedom is easy to desire.
All around me,
the sounds of progress -
thunderous, clanging, male.
Alone, half-naked, seeing blurred,
I read the verse of the first
free women
and inch my way in,
to freeze and learn,
that for me,
it is enough to be here.
© Shaista Tayabali, 2023
Linked to dverse poets Open Link Night
It’s hard to believe I’ve been back in Cambridge for almost three months. I think I have accepted my return?! The water was so cold the day I wrote this poem… it took me an eternity to plunge my body into the pool… but knowing England was awash with snow, and I would have to face a different, darker, greyer cold, I talked my body into the blue.
