“What Should I Do With My Regret?” by Megha Sood

that keeps coming back to me like a stray dog

looking for love, and empathy when I have none

What should I do with my grey regret?

Fuelled with hate and remorse;

like a leftover dough on a marbled kitchen top  

rising unbidden out of hate:

taking up all the space in my being.

What should I do with my regret?

Should I make origami folds and give it a wing?

so that it can fly to lands unknown

Or should I plait them 

/slowly but surely/ 

braid by braid

weaving my grief and acceptance as I go along

to give them a safe haven

their sustenance they longed for. 

What should I do with my brackish regret?

Bleach it, sock it overnight, and scrub it over

till the blood pools under my knuckles

till everything turns pristine

for everyone to see

something that soothes their eyes and balms their skin.

What should I do with my orangish regret?

Rising feverishly like fire in the kiln

simmering my insides

turning me into an obsidian ash

That I smear my soul with.

Tell me what should I do with this sticky moldy regret,

that spills out of me and has a life of its own?

Tell me, what do you do with regret?

When there is nothing left to bemoan anymore.

Megha Sood is an Award-winning Asian-American poet, editor, author, and literary Activist.  Literary Partner with “Life in Quarantine”, at Stanford University. Her widely anthologized poems, essays, and other works talk about her experience as a first-generation immigrant and woman of color.Her selected work is to be sent to the moon in 2024 in collaboration with NASA/SpaceX. Link: https://linktr.ee/meghasood

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Discover more from Taiwan&Masticadores // Editor: C. J. Anderson-Wu // Taiwan

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