After Patricia Smith
Don’t shroud them, your thunder
thighs. Unsack & air your thunder
thighs. Hoist them up. Setubandh
to the sun—an offering, not a blunder
thighs. Release them. Rainbows
in an oil spill, formerly asunder
thighs. Peacock them. In the streets
wilderness of wonder
thighs. Tandav a revolution. Oh Yash!
Unshackle. Your thunder. Thighs.
*Setubandh is the Sanskrit name of the bridge pose .
*Tandav is Lord Shiva’s dance of fury.
Yashasvi Vachhani is a curator and facilitator of children's programmes in Mumbai. Her poem was recently published in Of Dry Tongues and Brave Heart, an anthology for women's poetry. She loves, reading, writing and the colour yellow.
Welcome to SWWIM Every Day’s National Poetry Month project: Sing the Body: A Collection of Poems Praising Our Selves!
With support from Florida International University’s Wolfsonian Public Humanities Lab (WPHL) and Florida International University’s Center for Women and Gender Studies, we are publishing poems that celebrate body positivity and our selves.
In addition to publishing the poems as poems of the day, 10 select Sing the Body poems will be displayed on FIU’s main campus near mirrors and places where women encounter themselves. These poems will live in a dedicated portfolio on our website.
Thank you, as always, for reading and supporting SWWIM Every Day! Happy National Poetry Month!
