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Tiny cherubs of joy paddle the air.
Must I mention their preposterous wings?
No: I sit. I pull the door shut,
the cubicle expands like feathers.

The girl walks in, hesitates.
I watch her stop her shoes next door,
the bottoms of her frayed blue jeans.
(I’m trying not to make a sound.)

She bends down, places paper
on the seat, carefully sits.
Her shoes face forward,
the jeans fall to her feet.

I listen, then, to the sound
of fabric falling down
to the floor of the stall.
The girl is gone.

I pull on her jeans,
shoes, underwear. Again,
the sound of God’s snake hissing:
sudden breasts on my chest.

Outwards I soften.
Stubble falls from my face.
A cleft of African violet
swells with the sea.

My lifeline lengthens.
My seat fills out.
I feel my smell change – spicy,
mysterious, so sweet I gag for fear.
Thayil, Jeet. “How to be a girl.” English. Penguin, 2003, pp. 17-18.
Published with permission from Penguin Random House India.
Read Jeet Thayil on IWE Online
Questions of the 'State' of the 'Art'

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