Poem of the Week | April 29, 2019

“I Ride Upon A Tiger” Kirun Kapur
This week we are delighted to present “I Ride Upon a Tiger,” a new poem by Kirun Kapur.
Kirun Kapur is the winner of the Arts & Letters Rumi Prize in Poetry and the Antivenom Poetry Award for her first book, Visiting Indira Gandhi’s Palmist (Elixir Press, 2015). Her second book, Women in the Waiting Room, was a finalist for the National Poetry Series and is forthcoming from Black Lawrence Press (2020). Her work has appeared in AGNI, Poetry International, FIELD, Prairie Schooner, Ploughshares and many other journals. She serves as Poetry Editor at The Drum Literary Magazine and currently teaches at Amherst College. Kapur was recently a finalist for our 2018 Jeffrey E. Smith Editors’ Prize for Poetry.
I Ride Upon a Tiger,
my bones are made of whales,
and when whales die, their songs.
My eyes are pits
of mangos, scraped clean of sweet.
From my feet plunge fifty streams—
the rush, the cold
exposes underworlds of fear.
Four stomachs cannot explain my hungers.
I have devoured myself. I tread upon my loves.
I have been strung with a necklace
of hummingbirds, my hair
in braids, my braids are tongues.
Atop my head, a crown of forty
languages, spoken all at once.
My breastplates gleam and thrum,
two armies, marching on. You,
who extracts the marrow and the light.
You, who sucks the sun and leaves
the bone eroded colder—Demon, disease,
dear fated one. Do you hear? I will come
to you on the back of a tiger.
Author’s Note
Years ago, I saw a tiger in a game preserve in India. I’d been driving down a jungle road, when, suddenly, there she was, lying in tall grass, sunning herself on a bluff. Her size, her suddenness, the lush gloss of her coat, the way she radiated well-being and power have never left me. Sometimes, when I’m falling asleep at night, I see her again, just for a second. In Hindu mythology, the goddess Durga is often pictured with a tiger. As a child, my aunt would sometimes take me to the temple on Friday, Durga’s day, to say a prayer. I was awed by both lady and beast. This poem began with that mix of myth, memory and dream. I wrote it at a time when I found myself in circumstances I couldn’t avoid or control–it’s an effort to summon an interior ferocity and majesty. I suppose I wanted to imagine a way to ride right down the throat of fear.
SEE THE ISSUE
SUGGESTED CONTENT

Poem of the Week
Jul 04 2022
“William deKooning’s Woman I” by Diane Mehta
This week’s Poem of the Week is “William deKooning’s Woman I” by Diane Mehta. Diane Mehta was born in Frankfurt and grew up in Bombay and New Jersey. She was… read more

Poem of the Week
Jun 27 2022
“Minnie Mouse vs. Security” by M.K. Foster
This week’s Poem of the Week is “Minnie Mouse vs. Security” by M.K. Foster. M.K. Foster’s poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in Indiana Review; The Gettysburg Review; Crab Orchard;… read more

Poem of the Week
Jun 20 2022
“Black Hole in the Long Island Sound” by Peter LaBerge
This week’s Poem of the Week is “Black Hole in the Long Island Sound” by Peter LaBerge. Peter LaBerge is the author of the chapbooks Makeshift Cathedral (YesYes Books) and… read more