ISSN: 1941-4137
POETRY THAT ENACTS THE ARTISTIC AND CREATIVE PURITY OF GLASS
POETRY THAT ENACTS THE ARTISTIC AND CREATIVE PURITY OF GLASS
Umang Kalra is an Indian poet and a student of History at Trinity College, Dublin. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Icarus, Vagabond City, Tn2 Magazine, Coldnoon, Porridge Magazine, and others. She has previously worked with Inklette Magazine, and is currently involved in a year long mentorship programme for women of colour in Ireland, under the bilingual poet Doireann Ni Ghriofa.
My Vagina Was Not an Orchid
at thirteen — it did not flower, nor
bloom, nor look pretty enough to touch.
I sat uncomfortably in front of the mirror
long enough to forget the tiles were cold,
confused at why people wrote poems
about this strange object in between
my legs. I watched me watching myself
and nothing grew out of the shadows
that lined my ribs, nothing beautiful
crawled into the space above my breasts
that were trying so hard to breathe softer
and better and purer and easier. I called
myself dirty words and my throat told
itself to moan in pleasure but it hurt
when I tugged at my hair and it hurt
when I remembered I hadn’t clipped
my nails that week. I read somewhere
that bitten lips were pretty and so I bled
from two places that day. It wasn’t the
colour of cherries and I wondered
what all of the fuss was about. Nobody
teaches little girls how to love without
sounds that sound like pain. Nobody
teaches little girls how to love without
somebody watching them pretend that
it feels good.
Glass: A Journal of Poetry is published monthly by Glass Poetry Press.
All contents © the author.
All contents © the author.
