I
By Shivani Mutneja
I have blood that guarantees submission
I have eyes for revolution
fingers for information
and car keys for explosion.
I can say it aloud if required
that I have sex with both men and women
I like being disturbed and disturbing
I half revel in the vulgar
and speak of breaking shop windows
I disagree frenetically
and have much more to say than you any day.
How can you decide what I mean?
I refuse to be co-opted.
Lying naked on my text
I wrap pages on the genitalia
I’m love, sex, pleasure, towards
and backwards,
the meaning of all you’ve read,
the deferral of all you’ve understood.
Picking up guns—
I do that.
Shivani Mutneja straddles between Delhi and Ghaziabad in a normal week. She teaches English Literature at Delhi University. She holds a degree in Cinema Studies from School of Arts & Aesthetics in JNU and is thinking about pursuing a PhD. She recently spent a semester in Italy and Greece studying creative writing and art history with the Aegean Center for Fine Arts.