Nidhi Agrawal presents four poems

Yearning

It's a tough row to reach you,
Years of austerity cannot
Measure my yearning for you.
I have abandoned the material pleasures
That create hindrances to reaching your town.
Meanwhile, the mind has constructed a castle
For you,
The heart is decorated with rose festoons.

The body is converted into
A castle, I want you to see.
My reality cultivates
Love, kindness, forgiveness in its garden,
The rivers are gushing back and forth between
Flesh and bones.

Presence

All eyes on the melting glaciers.
I fill the vessels of my bosom
With the flowing crystals of
Your presence.
 
I could pluck my breasts to
Lift the lid pressed on my heart
Maybe, you reside in the tiny vessels
Of my meat to
Hear my heartbeats.
To find you is a ballsy job,
I am a satiated employee
In your presence.

As the Moon embellishes the sky with peace,
As the Stars come together to

Become constellations,
As the lotus petals bloom in mud,
Oh Lord of the highest peaks,
I become,
In your presence.

Perspective

Indiscriminate actions build castles
Of agony
Imprisoning the being.
In the absence of consciousness,
Something ends,
Something starts,
Embodying beauty.

Longing

Today, I am keeping a true course, Mother!
I swear, I will wash your lustrous black idol with my blood,
And, invoke millions of your incarnations
If you absorb my white skin, NOW.

Don’t you know?
I have a need to finding patterns,
More than your ghouls.
Come, Mother!
Come to my body tonight,
No more foot-dragging
I am standing at your doorstep,
Ready to be crushed by your LEFT foot.

My heart is your cremation ground
Surrounded by jackals, corpses and girdle made 
Of treachery.
Slaughter, mother!
I am what exists when time is transcended.
I am Sati! I am ‘Maharatri’!
Don’t wait too long to take me
Back in your womb!

Nidhi Agrawal grew up in India. Her writings have been featured by Quadrant Australia, Girl Talk HQ, eShe Magazine, University of California, Riverside, Say it Forward, Chicago School of Arts, Lewis Clark State College’s literary journal, St. Francisco University’s journal, The Elevation review (Kneeland Poetry Inc.), The Dillydoun Review, Xavier Review Press, California State Poetry Society, Signal Mountain Review- The University of Tennessee, Chronogram Magazine, Letters (Yale University), Setu Journal, Spill Word Press South Asian Today, Indian Periodical, Rising Phoenix Review, Life in 10 minutes press, Ariel Chart, Women's Web, Women for One, Lekh, Garland Magazine and Muse India. She is the author of "Confluence".