in which i hypnotise a tiger
by Khairani Barokka
Published in the author’s poetry collection, Ultimatum Orangutan (2021), from Nine Arches Press. Click the arrow (>) to learn more about this piece
not made for blake quotes and tinder profiles. not squandered for bullets slung as attempts at gumption. not slit with knives on colonists’ orders, then strung up. not sold to a venture capitalist who’ll place her pale feet in heels and on you. not vanishing. not a chipmunk- cheeked emoji. not bedtime threat to children in cold climates. not CGI recreation with an underappreciated actor voicing you. not a bevy of ill-advised tattoos. not the hangover. not sports team embodiment. not go get ’em. not taxidermy. not species forgotten. not a name used for foreplay. not a fantastic form of balm for soothing creaking muscle tissue. not a totem for my calming alone. not tired and misunderstood and hiding and rotting and gone. scream without shame or fear of banishment. this is no forest of wounding, tribulation, dust of your bone. lick your paws. open your eyes.
Khairani Barokka is a writer and artist from Jakarta, and Editor of Modern Poetry in Translation. Among her honours, she has been Modern Poetry in Translation’s Inaugural Poet-in-Residence, a UNFPA Indonesian Young Leader Driving Social Change, an Artforum Must-See, UK Associate Artist at Delfina Foundation, and Associate Artist at the National Centre for Writing (UK). Okka’s work includes being author-illustrator of Indigenous Species (Tilted Axis), author of Rope (Nine Arches), and co-editor of Stairs and Whispers: D/deaf and Disabled Poets Write Back (Nine Arches). Her latest book is Ultimatum Orangutan (Nine Arches), shortlisted for the Barbellion Prize.
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