Teaching the Tongue to Desire IZABEL MAH Y BUSCH
COLLECTION Postcolonial Love
herself to take ownership of her desire and to
Poem, Natalie Diaz does not intentionally write
find comfort in herself despite using a language
to resist. Rather, it is through colonialism that
that attempts to estrange her from her body.
her body has become an act of resistance.
In particular, the poems “These Hands, If Not
As Diaz teaches her tongue to desire, the
Gods,” “Isn’t the Air Also a Body, Moving,” and
prevalence of colonialism makes that desire a
“Ink-Light” reveal the nature of genocide and
IN
THE
form of resistance.
the interpersonal violence, but then move into
The nature of this book of poems is one
how colonialism manifests itself in its victims,
drawn from and of lived experience, from
turning them into their own oppressor by
being Native American, a woman, and queer.
estranging them from their bodies. To conclude
It is the intersection of the three, interspersed
is a poem of hope and ownership for and of the
throughout each poem in varying degrees, that
body. The three poems each expose language
exhibits not only a complexity of experience
as an active oppressor for marginal identities,
but also a complexity of the individual, of
but especially for Indigenous persons who
what it means to be a person, which is what
have had their tongues folded and twisted to
colonial thought tries to erase. Although not
accommodate this colonial language, English.
intentionally doing so, Diaz humanizes her
Additionally, the poems, in their order, mimic
experience and normalizes her reality, allowing
the path of healing needed by Indigenous
I Z A B E L M A H Y B U S C H is a double major in English and Chicana/o-Latina/o Studies and is graduating in 2024. She has always had an interest in topics concerning race and power. This piece allowed her to explore these topics while also delving into English and
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writing, another one of her interests. It was written for Sarah Maclay’s Genres: Poetry course.
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