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An Unknown Girl - Wai

An unknown girl hennas the speaker's hand in the evening bazaar for a few rupees. As the henna spreads peacock lines across her palm, colors float up in balloons and dummies stare from shop fronts. The speaker has new brown veins from the henna. When in India, she clings to the peacock lines like people cling to train sides. Though she will scrape off the dry lines to reveal the design beneath, it will fade within a week. When India appears and disappears again, the speaker will long for the unknown girl in the neon bazaar.

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2K views1 page

An Unknown Girl - Wai

An unknown girl hennas the speaker's hand in the evening bazaar for a few rupees. As the henna spreads peacock lines across her palm, colors float up in balloons and dummies stare from shop fronts. The speaker has new brown veins from the henna. When in India, she clings to the peacock lines like people cling to train sides. Though she will scrape off the dry lines to reveal the design beneath, it will fade within a week. When India appears and disappears again, the speaker will long for the unknown girl in the neon bazaar.

Uploaded by

khamkham19
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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An Unknown Girl

In the evening bazaar studded with neon an unknown girl is hennaing my hand She squeezes a wet brown line from a nozzle. She is icing my hand, which she steadies with hers on her satin-peach knee. In the evening bazaar for a few rupees an unknown girl is hennaing my hand. As a little air catches my shadow-stitched kameez2 a peacock spreads its lines across my palm. Colours leave the street float up in balloons. Dummies in shop-fronts tilt and stare with their Western perms. Banners for Miss India 1993, for curtain cloth and sofa cloth canopy me. I have new brown veins. In the evening bazaar very deftly an unknown girl is hennaing my hand. I am clinging to these firm peacock lines like people who cling to the sides of a train. Now the furious streets are hushed. Ill scrape off the dry brown lines before I sleep, reveal soft as a snail trail the amber bird beneath. It will fade in a week. When India appears and reappears Ill lean across a country with my hands outstretched longing for the unknown girl in the neon bazaar.

Comment [U1]: These are repeated 3 times Divide poem into 3 three sections: -Girl + Henna process -India + Where she is -How she wants to stay Short lines (spontaneous) + No stanzas -Different = Non western -Short time in India -Doesnt want to end = No stanzas It is also a cycle because first words similar to last words coming and going, process will happen again and again Comment [U2]: Hennaing = trying to adopt Indian culture but it is only temporary, like the henna it wont last Comment [U3]: Enjambment -Everything is so fast her time in India is running through her hands -So full of energy, it runs over the lines Comment [U4]: Specifically India Exotic represents India, beautiful needs to be explored, opened up, lively and colorful Comment [U5]: Possibly Indians influenced by the west, or Western tourists who look out of place, or mannequins modeling Western clothes which look awkward and dont belong there Comment [U6]: -Artificial -Fake = Miss World one of the worst examples of western influences -Out of place, West is intruding India Comment [U7]: All the things surrounding her represents India. The word Canopy suggests how she feels India is protecting her Comment [U8]: 1 sentence short, definite and imply sense of pride -Discovered new things as if India is a part of her, in her vein -New life in India Comment [U9]: Repetition of an unknown girl to emphasize the fact that she is mysterious like India, it also the unknown side of the persona Comment [U10]: Feeling of desperation to hold on -wants to find out more -cant let go Comment [U11]: Simile compared to the people who cling to the train sides, those people usually hold on very tightly because if they let go they would die

Comment [U12]: Digging Deeper into India -Scraping pass the surface Comment [U13]: Sibilance = soft, gentle, smooth, time not going fast Comment [U14]: Although she is desperate to hold on to the memories about India, it will still fade because henna suggests that its temporary, she will not have enough of it -Tone = Regret Comment [U15]: Begging, Desperate to stay

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