KAUSHALYA BANNERJI

I wanted to write a dyke poem

in your face rhetorical

a poem unbound angry as my curves

aching as the words you never see

me throw

I wanted to write a dyke poem

struttingjeans ungirdled

fists that caress like fingers

a poem as inspiring as Bonnie

as Thelma and Louise as defiant

as Lila and Urmila

as erased by your herstory as Malinche and Draupadi

I wanted poems

as hungry as Kali

fertile as Yemaya

bursting with women’s sad miracles like Mary

I wanted to write a dyke