Ally Ang | Portrait of a Modern Woman | Glass: A Journal of Poetry

Ally Ang is a Pushcart Prize nominated poet and and the author of Monstrosity (Damaged Goods Press, 2016). Ally's work has been featured in The Fem, Tinderbox Poetry Journal, Crab Fat Magazine, and more. Find them on Twitter and Instagram: @TheOceanIsGay

Ally Ang's website.

Also by Ally Ang: Monstrosity Tongue Two Poems

June 2017

Ally Ang

Portrait of a Modern Woman

when I come out the womb, my body is already a war zone. they cut me from my mama's belly blue in the face & refusing to breathe. only after I start to cry & my parents exhale their terror do they name me daughter, a word synonymous with subordination & possession — a thing to be tamed. I know my body like I know my country: ancient brown, & crumbling at the borders. I am a citizen of neither. so here I am again a baby bird caught in a thunderstorm seeking respite at your feet. fill my hunger with your body. fill my body with your hunger. I eat your desire while it is still bloody & raw. your touch will never sustain me but I can't help it: I am small & desperate to be fed.

This poem, like many others I've written, deals with my tumultuous relationship with my body. As a queer person of color, I often feel like my body does not belong to me because of the ways it is racialized, gendered, and sexualized. This poem is my way of trying to reclaim my body as my own.

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