Brooke Sahni

The Sensuous Woman by J

A woman   gets eaten


out    by a tiger   and the unnamed    author assures


the readers      that this fantasy     is perfectly     natural—


natural      that a woman   might want to    be

tiger and

woman—satiated in either form.     We’d found the book in my mother’s old

high school dresser        amongst

yearbooks    photos     diaries    locks of my baby hair.


A holy thing    we pass it. Read rape     read pleasure     read outdated language

— be the woman every man yearns to make love to—the woman you yearn to be.

It’s summer

so many things are calling us    into and out of    ourselves    so we close it   gently

place it

back in its darkness   position it


so it looks untouched.

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Brooke Sahni's writing has appeared in magazines such as The Missouri Review Poem of the Week, Spillway, Cave Wall, 32 Poems, EcoTheo Review, River Styx, Southwestern American Literature and other publications. Her poetry chapbook, Divining, is the winner of the 2019 Orison Chapbook Prize and is forthcoming this year.