Featured Poem: Wanting to Move by Vijaya Mukhopadhyay

The Reader's Director of Literature, Katie Clark, reads 'Wanting to Move' by Vijaya Mukhopadhyay

Wanting to Move

by Vijaya Mukhopadhyay

Continually, a bell rings in my heart.
I was supposed to go somewhere, to some other place,
Tense from the long wait—
Where do you go, will you take me
“With you, on your horses, down the river, with the flame
of your torches?”

They burst out laughing.
“A tree wanting to move from place to place!”
Startled, I look at myself—
A tree, wanting to move from place to place, a tree
Wanting to move? Am I then—
Born here, to die here
Even die here?
Who rings the bell, then, inside my heart?
Who tells me to go, inside my heart?
Who agitates me, continually, inside my heart?

Read more about The Reader Booksheld 2023-24 here