Quiet Reverie

She dipped her head in the water

as she washed the cleanser from her skin.

This.

This was a real highlight of her day.

That one moment,

one minute of solitude, she would have

before the onslaught of the day

swept her off her feet.

Then…

Then she would not stop

until the end of the day.

Soon,

once dried and moisturized,

she would be dealing with

the noise and craziness

of Chloe, Martin, and Chelsea

as they all got ready for school,

while seeing off Timothy

as he headed out for work.

Patting her face dry,

she turns —

eyeing herself up in the mirror.

Her reflected visage staring back —

full of love and gratitude.

Nothing could take those away,

but there was more —

behind her eyes.

She felt it,

in the pit of her stomach.

As the gaze of her mirror self

stared —

She felt those regrets.

The regrets we all have,

that come with living life

not always for oneself

because we can’t.

Not always.

Regrets and guilt —

perfect bedfellows in the mind.

A small droplet, a salty tear

formed

in the corner of her left eye.

Her hands tracing

the unseen stretchmarks maps

across her belly, across the ache

in the pit of her stomach.

She was proud —

Proud of her motherhood

Proud of her marriage

These regrets were not —

not about any of that.

But a lump in her throat

formed as she thought

about how her throat

had long been used

as a vessel

not for arias or ballads

but for dinner calls,

Sports Day cheers

and twilight,

groans and moans.

She thinks,

as so often she does,

Michelle —

the mother, the wife

the daughter, the lover

the organiser, the accountant —

about the paths she took

and the paths she avoided.

She imagines

dipping her face

back into the water

again.

Wondering if she could

hold eternal the longing —

But stops fast

from dipping her face,

as contentment returns.

The sense of fulfilment

not in what could have been

no, in what was and is.

As from behind the door

Chloe calls out

she responds

sharing a smile

with her proud mirror visage.

*

Thanks for reading!

Author's Notes: This is a slightly different approach to poetry than I have usually taken, as it's not autobiographical. I appreciate, as ever, all reads, likes, and comments. Anyway, I have a few poems to share to tide things over while I work on things outside of Vocal.

This was originally published on Medium through the publication Catharsis Chronicles on April 7th, 2025, which you can check out through the link below.

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