bespoke (a pantoum)

by Amrita V. Nair

There is a life out there. 

I will know it when I see it. 

And I will step into it;

And it will fit me perfectly.

I will know it when I see it.

I will not hesitate, not for a minute.

And you will see that it will fit me perfectly; 

Maybe you will even be happy for me.

I will not hesitate, not for a minute.

Even if this life here is softer.

Maybe you will even be happy for me.

Even if the new one is out of fashion, scratchier.

Even if this life here is softer,

There is a life out there.

Even if the new one is out of fashion, scratchier.

I will step into it. 

Amrita V. Nair (she/her) is a poet from Kerala, who currently lives in the traditional, ancestral and unceded territory of the Coast Salish peoples (Vancouver, Canada). Her writing has appeared in Okay Donkey, Yuzu Press, Litmora, and elsewhere, and was included in the Bloomsbury Anthology of Great Indian Poems. Website: www.amritanair.com. Twitter: @amritanairv