The untouchable body is touched until
it can be touched no more, touched so
often and in so many ways, just to purge
you of fears
She is powerful for she is woman, you
make of her an anthem, her breasts are
in mourning, her tortured cries haunt
your ripped manhood’s
Her sisters are bodies draped over
mango trees, gargoyles in watch as
a country congregates, her insides
shimmering in the sky
Her incandescence shines through the
untouchability of her opaque skin, all
siphoned tongues now a kali garland
chanting your venoms
She is silent, she gathers shards of
herself, scattered over your demonic
realms, she will soon unravel an urn
of kleshas1 on you
She reclaims herself, bleeds into lands
overflowing into your pristine ganges
craving to be uncursed, her hymens
will capsize you
Her breath is wounded, she roams in
search of every wretched grave, hers
and hers, hers and hers and hers and
hers, each bone, all flesh, drumming
laboring
into a daayan2
kleshas1 – negative mental states, difficulties
daayan2 – witch, folklore entity from netherworld
Kashiana Singh lives in Chicago and embodies her TEDx talk theme of Work as Worship into her everyday. Her first collection is Shelling Peanuts and Stringing Words. Her chapbook Crushed Anthills is a journey through 10 cities. Her poems have been published on various platforms including Poets Reading the News, Visual Verse, Oddball Magazine, Café Dissensus, TurnPike Magazine, Inverse Journal. She is the winner of the 2020 Reuel International Poetry Award. Kashiana proudly serves as an Associate Poetry Editor for Poets Reading the News.
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