Concubine’s Dirge
I ransack the princess’ box
beads, jewels, pearls
dripping through my knuckles
jade and amber
sliding under my gaze
minuscule daggers
a paring knife caked with pomegranate juice
What have I witnessed of the princess?
sweeping hair
bleeding smile
repaired by hand with carved ivory
Her gilded coffret --
the last of her
swollen breath
I find three painted stucco figures
of wing-ed beasts
and a porcelain mirror
without a reflection
There’s nothing left here of us
There’s nothing left here for us
The poem explores the duality and dichotomy of the concubine/princess archetypes. The concubine takes a subversively active role in unpacking the remaining vestiges of a deceased princess, who remains voiceless. The princess is, nonetheless, a silent survivor of her own traumas which are alluded to in the second stanza. The third and fourth stanzas turn to the reason why the concubine searches through the princess' possessions: she disregards items of traditional value (e.g., gold, pearls) and tries to find traces of the princess' soul, her being, proof of her existence. She finds three stucco figures, which is an allusion to 9th century funerary figures found in my ancestral Central Asian region. The concubine never finds what she is looking for - the reflection in the mirror - demonstrating that in not finding proof life of the princess, the concubine cannot find her own.
S.K. is a teacher, a student, a poet, and a researcher. She is on a mission to understand her multifaceted identities and support her community.