Tishani Doshi: "The Deliverer"

 Tishani Doshi is an Indian poet, writer, and dancer. Her pieces of literature are usually about violence, aging, religion, and female bodies. Let us look at one of her popular poems, The Deliverer.

The first part of the poem describes a conversation between a mother and a sister, also known as a nun. They are talking about an orphanage that consists of children who were abandoned by their parents for either being disabled, being too dark to be accepted by Indian society, or just for being born a girl. The author uses brutal imagery to describe how violently these children and disposed of, including being buried alive. The last sentence tells the reader what the poem is about. The speaker and her mother are visiting the orphanage and plan to bring a child home with them.

The second part of the poem is about bringing the girl home to America. When Doshi says, "they are American so they know about the ceremony," she says it in a mocking tone and the reader assumes that the parents are putting on a show to act in a "correct" way. In the next stanza, the speaker shows her love for the girl by describing her habits that other people might not know about.

The final part of the poem describes the girl, now grown up, trying to figure out her life story through videotapes. The phrase "twilight corners" describes the dark parts of her life. The last two stanzas serve as a theory on how the girl came to be. Many women lack proper medication attention, especially during childbirth, so she is forced to "squeeze out life," usually with the help of self-taught midwives. As the body "slither[s] out," the midwives check to see if there are male genitals present or not. If they are not, the baby girls are usually discarded since girls were perceived to be less superior and more of a burden to their families than baby boys were.

I picked this poet because she is a feminist that brings light to real-world issues. This poem was deep to me because as an Indian, I've heard many stories like this happen, even to people I know. It is a truly heartbreaking thing that children are abandoned because of something they cannot control and bringing light to these issues is the beginning of hopefully changing this "tradition."