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  • Her third eye was erased at birth
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Her third eye was erased at birth

Raman Mundair

smudged away by blind sage
fingers intent 
            on keeping her            locked 
into position,              fixed into being, 
trapped into ways of seeing 
                        that were blind and sore as the pimples 
            that later emerged – hormonal braille, 
                        that later erupted – little bulbous blind 
                                    volcanos rounded scarlet like the throats 
of exotic birds that trill and song 
throats comic ballooning 
for sex,            for need,          for want
                        signalling
blind desire to assimilate, recreate, procreate, 
                        this is blind hope
this is a                                               leap
                        thelma and louise
let’s keep going
            let’s keep
                        let’s
                        later let’s
                                    let’s. but the invited fingertips 
                                                can      not feel
the tenderness of your skin
they can          not feel
they are           melanin blind 
                        oblivious to the labour
they erase geology
            and flatten 
                        the topography of your body,
they disappear your present, 
                        snag at the keratosis pilaris 
that dot to dots across your body –
                        A cratered astronomical epidermis
the tight hair coiled raging, 
                                    trapped beneath 
the same hair              to be shorn, ripped 
            from the root to shape, 
                        to smooth a route 
to want,         to desire,         to need, I am woman 
here                 me                   raw                   I am woman, 
                        strip me down, 
pour hot wax, epilate, tweeze and shave, 
            girlhood me, 
                        make me easier to read. 
            take 
                        away my         bite.
make me less                          feral
less me make me less
                        here.    I stand before you
nothing special           nothing
to worry, nothing to harry,     I am cancelled
teeth bared, 

look – 
            I am not a threat, 
let me in. let me pass
            from the periphery
            from the margins
            from the shoormal
            from the horizon
            from the impasse

listen, 
            keep the chai and the yoga
the pyjamas, bathing and shampoo,
the aruvedics and the spices and the curry
I gift them, keep them, take them and 
recognise me.
            ears pinned back, ears prunkit, ears poised
tongue slavering, tongue gibberish, tongue raging
outstretched
                        any similarities with Kali are purely accidental
besides, I don’t have the arms to hold the weight 
            of your vison – and your reflection stuns me
                                    I am barely here
Look:
            I’m neither here 
                                                nor there


Raman Mundair

About this poem

This poem was chosen by Aoife Lyall as part of the Scottish Poetry Library’s ‘Champions’ project, a guest curatorship programme to help extend our national reach.

Lyall says, ‘Raman’s poem breathes into the weight of responsibility and expectation ‘vision’ lays at a woman’s feet: to be painfully delicate, perpetually self-aware, purposefully made less to be thought more. It is a call to action and a cry to freedom, a realignment of purpose and function, ideals and realities.’

Mundair says, ‘The proposed subject of vision made me instinctively narrow my eyes. I wanted to filter and notice the peripheral, the liminal and let that land in me. I wanted to consider the weight of the concept of vision and visioning and let it irritate a little and then let it settle. ‘Her Third Eye Was Erased at Birth’ is as playful as it is experimental and as equally poetic as it is political.’

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Raman Mundair

Raman Mundair is a writer and artist.
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