Poem
Shazea Quraishi
DEVADATTA
DEVADATTA
DEVADATTA
I’m summoned to the jasmine terracewhere he waits
reclining on the large, low bed
draped in blues and reds and oranges.
He’s with Sondasi’s servant girl
– her gaze is lowered, his
rests on her breasts, where a blush blooms
above her open blouse.
Her waist is a handspan, her hips
high and wide.
During the love act, he moves my legs
to one side
so she will see as he enters me.
He doesn’t look at me,
but, over my shoulder, watches her
small, heart-shaped face.
© 2012, Shazea Quraishi
Shazea Quraishi
(Pakistan, 1964)
Shazea Quraishi is one of a number of younger black and Asian women poets currently gaining ground in UK poetry. In sensual, clear, perfectly measured tones, her poems meet the male gaze with a female voice. Her long poem sequence The Courtesan’s Reply (“a wonderful study of gender and expectation” – Poetry Book Society) is based on the courtesans depicted in Manomohan Ghosh’s translation of Th...
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Poems of Shazea Quraishi
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DEVADATTA
I’m summoned to the jasmine terracewhere he waits
reclining on the large, low bed
draped in blues and reds and oranges.
He’s with Sondasi’s servant girl
– her gaze is lowered, his
rests on her breasts, where a blush blooms
above her open blouse.
Her waist is a handspan, her hips
high and wide.
During the love act, he moves my legs
to one side
so she will see as he enters me.
He doesn’t look at me,
but, over my shoulder, watches her
small, heart-shaped face.
DEVADATTA
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