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Sonal Shah

 

Tigers danced in the submarine

Threatening and trembling

Blossoming from the cave of enlightenment

Panting in her fiery demise

 

Threatening and trembling

Ogling eyes and wandering minds

Panting in her fiery demise

Prim and propped and posed and punished

 

Ogling eyes and wandering minds

She shined her shoes with nowhere to go

Prim and propped and posed and punished

Dancing and swaying in the moonlight

 

She shined her shoes with nowhere to go

Woman stands behind every great man

Dancing and swaying in the moonlight

Nipped and fitted and tucked in every place

 

Woman stands behind every great man

Horrid and hungry, strewn in that white cloth

Nipped and fitted and tucked in every place

She ached like an animal

 

Horrid and hungry, strewn in that white cloth

Strong-legged ballerinas, graceful and gruesome

She ached like an animal

Because women are soft and tired and strong

 

Strong-legged ballerinas, graceful and gruesome

Tigers danced in the submarine

Because women are soft and tired and strong

Blossoming from the cave of enlightenment


Sonal Shah is a member of the Class of 2023 and is from Monroe Township, NJ. She is in the SAS Honors Program and is majoring in Health Administration with a minor in Biology. She spends her free time tapping into her creativity with painting, music, and photography.

Sonal wrote this poem for Professor Joanna Fuhrman’s Intro to Creative Writing course in the Spring 2021 semester. Fuhrman selected it for publication in WHR.