the sun and her flowers

In Chapter 5, the speaker says nothing of her personal love life. The heartbreak recorded in Chapters 1 and 2, and the thrilling discovery of new love in Chapter 4, are put aside. She writes from the perspective of someone who is confident and fulfilled within herself. From that established platform she can look out and offer whatever she can to help the world, especially the lives of women, with whom she strongly identifies.

The second poem in the chapter, “when the first woman drew magic with her finger” (198-99), shows the speaker’s feminist stance in an unusual and provocative, even amusing way. Its frame of reference is sexual; it presents the idea that men have always, since the beginning of time, been disturbed by women’s sexuality and have tried to suppress it and control women. The very first man “built a cage to keep her [the first woman] in” and “called her witch / and shouted whore.” As the man slept, however, the woman rebelled, going off and finding her pleasure alone through masturbating, “the snake’s tongue / sitting inside her smiling.” The snake is perhaps an ironic allusion to the serpent in the Garden of Eden story in the book of Genesis. In Genesis, the serpent tempts Eve (the first woman), promising that if she eats the forbidden fruit she will acquire godlike knowledge. In reality, though, the eating of the fruit leads to punishment by God and expulsion from paradise. In Kaur’s poem, the serpent comes much closer to delivering the promise made by the biblical serpent. It delivers to the woman exactly the pleasure that the man tries to deny her. This is because, in the poem, the snake does not represent a temptation to sin but is instead a metaphor for the woman’s vagina or clitoris, her own source of pleasure. This is a rather unexpected depiction of the idea prominent in the chapter as a whole: that women have inside them all they need for their own fulfillment.

From this clever beginning, the chapter presents a paean to individual empowerment, especially of women. The speaker wants to convey her own knowledge, self-confidence, self-belief, and strength to others. She understands the long stretch of time and wants to honor the legacy of her ancestors, for it took many generations to form her as she is; their stories must be told (201).

Although she is aware of the oppression of women by men, she exempts her father from such a charge. In the poem that begins with “as a father of three daughters” (204), she expresses immense gratitude to him. Going against the tradition that had existed in their culture for hundreds of years, he insisted that education of his three daughters was a priority over marriage, “knowing it would set us free.” She was the beneficiary of his vision.

In this chapter, now that she no longer either bemoans or celebrates personal love affairs, the speaker becomes free with advice for others in concise, aphoristic style. This includes, “invest in the right people” (205), by which she means that a person must choose the people who are most ready to receive what he or she is able to offer. In the poem that begins with “to hate” (207), the speaker says it is easier to hate than to love, but everyone has the strength to love if they choose to exercise it. The poem that begins with “beautiful brown girl” (208-09) is an exhortation to women of color to love and appreciate their skin hue. The speaker advises women to trust and accept their bodies. The body is more reliable than the mind when it comes to knowing right and wrong (“it is speaking to you” [212]). Another piece of advice, offered in the poem that begins with “the day you have everything” (219), is to “remember / when you had nothing.” The line drawing below the poem shows a small boat on water with a solitary figure in it—symbolic perhaps of the immigrant coming to new shores.

While offering wisdom to others, the speaker does not forget to express gratitude for the secure and stable position she is now in. She gives thanks where it is due. For example, in the untitled poem that begins with “i am the first woman in my lineage” (211), she expresses gratitude for the freedom of choice she now has, which is so different from the tradition in which she was raised. Neither her mother, grandmother, nor great-grandmother had such freedoms. She imagines the grandmothers from her village, now in the afterlife, drinking chai as they gather around a mud stove: “how wild it must be for them to see one of their own living so boldly.” In “family” (216), the speaker again emphasizes the vital bonds of family.

A feminist approach to issues that concern women appears in many of the poems that follow. “the lies they sell” (222) is a protest against how beauty standards often change and are defined by men, which leaves women feeling insecure. The poem that begins with “you want to keep” (223) is a protest against male control of female bodies and how they are or are not displayed. In “human” (224-25), she attacks the “trillion-dollar” beauty industry; instead of spending money on cosmetics, women should believe they are already beautiful. In “medicine” (228), she offers a plea for female solidarity, encouraging women not to look to men for love but rather to themselves and “each other.” “let’s leave this place roofless” (231) is a feminist call to action to break through the “glass ceiling” that obstructs the advancement of women. In “what is the greatest lesson a woman should learn” (233), that lesson is, “since day one / she’s already had everything she needs within herself,” although the “world” has told her this is not so. By the “world,” she means the male-dominated world, against which she offers her vision of the self-sufficiency of women. It is also time, she states in “representation” (238-39), for women to assert themselves and “get as loud as we need / to be heard.” She asserts in “progress” that the work “we” do (that is, herself and other women) should allow women of the next generation to progress even further.

Other poems show a commitment to the world at large. In “love letter to the world” (243), filled with compassion for humanity, she will “keep marching” with the goal of “freedom” always in mind. “lift them” (246) offers an urgent injunction to stand “with the oppressed.” In the three prose paragraphs that immediately follow (247), she reviews the previous year (as she did at the end of Chapter 4). It was a positive year in which she remained committed to her dreams, and in the short poem that ends the collection, serenity and tranquility reign: “the sun and her flowers are here” (248).