Two Hens, Each Clutching the Other’s Cloth
Two Hens, Each Clutching the Other’s Cloth
before dust, you will be the woman
with the large knife
unnamed, hanging, loose on a tree limb
by your toes— a light sleeper,
the first wife
you will not be bounded,
a tiger mother, child
-less.
behind the creaking she sleeps light
your body, this floor, is a wasteland
you tell time with your shadow
though it is too tall and too curved
too wild for you
until the large knife.
you will talk to her,
and she will make you know the burden of your empty belly
you will be in the desert
knowing the aching of the childlessness
which is you,
and you will hear the creaking, and you will clutch her cloth
to make the creaking stop,
toss it towards the dust
you will feel the ground with her/your tongue
(the doctrine of the world is to kiss it)
you will wonder what to name yourself
to be tiger mother, you must sacrifice all hopes of identity
Salamita, you will die unborn
and newborn
do you know what it means to be gone for a while?
the creaking does not stop until the end of the dance
when you sleep on the floor
Response: The title of this poem is a phrase I borrowed from an event in the book, The Suns of Independence. I chose to write a poem because I believed that the author’s prosaic style throughout the book was so powerful. Throughout the poem, phrases are fragmented to illicit an uncomfortable pain for the reader — a sort of pain which was provoked, I believe, though the entire novel. I chose a scene which was perhaps not as gruesome and powerful as other scenes in the novel because I believe that the small action of two women fighting over room on the bed is such a pivotal point. I could have chosen the politics of genital mutilation or the socialization of rape or marriage to encapsulate the struggles of these women, but rather I wanted to further understand the moment wherein two women choose to fight against each other instead of uniting. I focused on the body, the floor, death, rebirth, and dance, because all these images seemed to act together in this scene in the novel. Everything, at least to me, seemed magical, and the best way in which I could interpret this scene was through poetry. I hope to show the feelings of isolation which plagued each woman, but at the same time, I wish to show sings of hope and love within the body, i.e. “the doctrine of the world is to kiss it.” In writing this poem, I wanted for both the female characters to understand that they each have their own personal turmoils, but that most importantly, it is possible for them to work together. Of course, I don’t think that this happened in the novel, and so I attempted to leave a little bit of ambiguity in the poem.
nice!
Graphic Designer said this on February 11th, 2017 at 7:50 pm