Tishani Doshi

  i. Muladhara If we could reconstruct the temple of our bodies, we all know what we’d change first. A little demolition work in the zone of belly, some gutting around hips and bum, a coat of paint after weather-stripping the face.

Read three new poems by Tishani Doshi from her forthcoming collection, Egrets, While War. The first, 'Monsieur Tout-Le-Monde', is dedicated to Gisèle Pelicot, a French woman who became a major feminist figure after waiving her right to anonymity as a victim in a multiple rape case; the poem is meditative, pausing for the 'kerfuffle' of a bird, yet piercing in its portrayal of the commonality of sexual violence. The remaining two poems are sonnets, similarly contemplating the movements of birds and other animals, while studded with reflections on the nature of living itself.