Book selection and analysis

¶ … Shame, I decided to write poetry as was instructed. The first quote that I felt told the theme of the book was on page 23. "Maybe my friend should be telling this story, or another one, his own; but he doesn't write poetry any more. So here I am instead, inventing what never happened to me.. Outsider! Trespasser! You have no right to this subject " (23) This shows the way the narrator expresses and conveys information through a "tall tale "esque style. In fact the book itself contains a lot of instances where shame and shamelessness lead to fiction and attempts to cover the truth. As seen by Chunni, Munnee, and Bunny raising Omar and pretending they all gave birth at the same time. Here is a poem to describe shame.

"Still"

I lay my head amongst the Russians and Afghanistan cradled underneath my chin.

You cannot see the burden placed only but the shallow grin.

Give up on what is scared and scarred, sacred past the elbows muddied from attempts.

I invent then some shallow and false pretenses and words attached to them in order to tell my story albeit scattered and frail.

I'll add to them strength with periods and limited use of commas. Only then will it make sense although not right away.

Tall tales and legends making my Pinocchio nose grow.

They'll never know what really occurred. Only my mouth shut tight will see the light of day.

Let me immerse myself in the night, in the darkness to cover the secrets and lies.

On pages 72-73 the quote used to reintroduce Omar was a good example of the language used within the book. "On my way back to the story, I pass Omar Khayyam, my sidelined hero, who is waiting patiently for me to get to the point at which his future bride, poor Sufiya Zinobia, can enter the narrative, head-first down the birth canal" (72-73). Shame of course is the main theme in the book and how shame leads to violence. Although this quote doesn't necessarily relate to the theme of shame in a clear way, it does relate to it in the delivery of Sufiya. The birth canal may be seen as a shameful place to come from because it is dirty and bloody. Here is a poem I wrote to relay the impact it left me.

"Birth"

Giving in to such idiocies and prophecies and as if some heresy was committed. Still you and I both know we are of Adam and Eve. Flesh beget flesh through suffering and toil-ing down the river into the gulf of blood and membrane.

You don't know what I've been through said the willowed, bastard child.

The tears encrusted into the visage of man and woman, both entwined and intermingled.

Can't believe my trip was so long, yet cut so short. Hero, hero, don't take that moment and slide past home. Crickets marching forth with their spicket of water, fresh water and rain. March down through the vestiges of bone and blood.

The last quote I just loved the languge and decided to write a poem about it. The decriptons in the book help generate a 3rd dimension to an otherwise flat story of shame. "a liquid, let's say a sweet fizzy tooth-rotting drink, stored in a vending machine."(131)

"Sugar"

You can say all you want about my rose hips and sweet smile. I'll just pass down by you and pretend for a spell.

Spells of water cast upon you like curses and then swiggle that swine wine until the very, last drop drips down.