Performance Tags Used in Events

Stanza Two / The ends of lines are stressed. This stanza flows unrestrained with natural descriptions referring to the act of bathing in rain, or monsoons. The reference to breasts, touch, and fingers activate sensory descriptions that shine through an oral performance. Through performance, the content of this stanza also increases awareness of the taboo of it's content, in references to premarital activities that may be perceived as scandalous in this historical context.

When we swam once / I touched you in water / and our bodies remained free / you could hold me and be blind of smell / You climbed the bank and said. [Tempo speeds up at the end up of this stanza and immediately breaks into the next lines without a gap.]

This is how you touch other women / the grass cutter's wife, the lime burner's daughter / And you searched your arms / for the missing perfume

Stanza Six / The speaker's lover compares his odorless touch of previous lovers with disdain, suggesting she does not want to be odorless of the cinnamon scent, embracing identity. Aside from a pause between "wife" and "the lime burner's daughter" this stanza is read in a faster tempo.