Text of the poem "My Grandmother's House" by Kamala Das

My Grandmother's House 

-Kamala Das

(The poem is in free verse & it was first published in Kamala Das's "Summer in Calcutta" in 1965.)

There is a house now far away where once 

I received love... That woman died, 

The House withdrew into silence, snakes moved 

Among books, I was then too young

To read, and my blood turned cold like the moon ← Simile 

How often I think of going

There, to peer through blind eyes of windows or 

Just listen to the frozen air, 

or in wild despair, pick an armful of 

Darkness to bring it here to lie

Behind my bedroom door like a brooding← Simile 

Dog... You cannot believe darling(addressed to her husband), 

Can you, that I lived in such a house and 

Was proud & beg now at stranger's doors to

Receive love, at least in small change?  

-Kamala Das

Text of the poem "The Looking Glass" by Kamala Das

 The Looking Glass

-Kamala Das

(A lyric that present a true and realistic image of the lustful relationship between every man and women)

Getting a man to love you is easy
Only be honest about your wants as
Woman. Stand nude before the glass with him
So that he sees himself the stronger one

And believes it so, and you so much more
Softer, younger, lovelier. Admit your
Admiration. Notice the perfection
Of his limbs, his eyes reddening under
The shower, the shy walk across the bathroom floor,
Dropping towels, and the jerky way he
Urinates. All the fond details that make
Him male and your only man. Gift him all,
Gift him what makes you woman, the scent of
Long hair, the musk of sweat between the breasts,
The warm shock of menstrual blood, and all your
Endless female hungers. Oh yes, getting
A man to love is easy, but living
Without him afterwards may have to be
Faced. A living without life when you move
Around, meeting strangers, with your eyes that
Gave up their search, with ears that hear only
His last voice calling out your name and your
Body which once under his touch had gleamed
Like burnished brass, now drab and destitute.

-Kamala Das