[HOME] [ISSUE] [ARCHIVES] [ABOUT] [GUIDELINES] [BLOG] The Unicorn at the Racetrackby Minal Hajratwala
I. In It To Win Itlook at the shining one, she is not one of us, she mimics hummingbirds not hooves, not whole hound hurdle-halvers, who the hell let that in here? my small man says And right before the race! concentrate! but how to un-see hubris of luminous mane, lustrous sparkle like cool trough at track's tail-oh how many rounds must i lap for the juice, apple lust dribbling my lips, whose hay will i huddle in tonight? & this boy-man with the sharp feet, hard tensing thighs & short bright whip! running i am nothing but running run run faster ugh please faster not the oh running fast as fast can i NO not the whip faster nose forward nose slow stop stand pant breathe where is she where is her blaze? II. Out While You Can O my half- brothers, your persistent gleaming thighs! O stallions drumming power- what flanks! Thunder on, yes, but not for this sham ecosystem of turf & scam, not for the hurt or the sweet steel-cut hay or the taste of the bit. Won't you, my tame trained kin, mahogany muscles insurrectionary royal scatter the men from their grand stands, refute that green ellipse, break your false orbit, fly? Minal Hajratwala is the author of Leaving India: My Family's Journey From Five Villages to Five Continents (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2009). She spent 2010-2011 as a Fulbright Senior Research Scholar in India researching a novel, while also writing poems about the unicorns of the ancient Indus Valley. She is the editor of Out! Stories From the New Queer India, the first anthology of LGBT literature after the decriminalization of homosexuality in India, published in 2012 from Queer Ink Publishing. Read Minal's discussion of this poem over at the Roundtable! Photography: adapted from A volta do tordilho-negro by Eduardo Amorim. 
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