Poetry International Poetry International
Poem

Mandakranta Sen

DO YOU KNOW HOW TO SWIM?

I can stop wearing jeans
If you ask me to. I'll become
Another woman quite easily
That the girl who loves you
Has short hair, not slicked with oil
(You told someone, I think)
Is impossible. Very well
I'll be a stranger to myself
From tomorrow, if you tell me that
A river will flow around your feet
When a blue sari is unfurled
I will toss away in the breeze
Each of my masculine habits
It's easy to give up wearing jeans
If I have to turn into a river
You know how to swim, don’t you?

DO YOU KNOW HOW TO SWIM?

Close

DO YOU KNOW HOW TO SWIM?

I can stop wearing jeans
If you ask me to. I'll become
Another woman quite easily
That the girl who loves you
Has short hair, not slicked with oil
(You told someone, I think)
Is impossible. Very well
I'll be a stranger to myself
From tomorrow, if you tell me that
A river will flow around your feet
When a blue sari is unfurled
I will toss away in the breeze
Each of my masculine habits
It's easy to give up wearing jeans
If I have to turn into a river
You know how to swim, don’t you?

DO YOU KNOW HOW TO SWIM?

I can stop wearing jeans
If you ask me to. I'll become
Another woman quite easily
That the girl who loves you
Has short hair, not slicked with oil
(You told someone, I think)
Is impossible. Very well
I'll be a stranger to myself
From tomorrow, if you tell me that
A river will flow around your feet
When a blue sari is unfurled
I will toss away in the breeze
Each of my masculine habits
It's easy to give up wearing jeans
If I have to turn into a river
You know how to swim, don’t you?
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