Tissues – Imtiaz Dharker

. “turned into your skin”

• Metaphor → paper → “skin” → identity becomes something fragile, human, physical

• “turned” → transformation → identity is constructed, not natural or fixed

• Semantic field of the body → makes abstract ideas tangible → identity is lived, not just written

• Enjambment → continuous flow → mirrors how identity develops over time

• Alt reading: Suggests human identity is as temporary and delicate as paper, easily altered or destroyed

AO3

• Dharker explores how identity is fragile and constructed, shaped by human systems but ultimately impermanent

“with living tissue, raise a structure never meant to last”

• Metaphor → “living tissue” → human life → links body to paper imagery

• Verb “raise” → suggests human effort to build → ambition, control

• “structure” → could be buildings, governments, identities → broad symbolism

• “never meant to last” → blunt, declarative → inevitability of decay

• Contrast → human creation vs impermanence → futility of control

• Alt reading: Suggests all human power (political, social, personal) is temporary

AO3

• Dharker emphasizes the temporary nature of human power and creation, challenging ideas of permanence

• “fly our lives like paper kites”

• Simile → “paper kites” → light, fragile, controlled by external forces

• Verb “fly” → suggests lack of grounding → instability

• Plural pronoun “our” → universalizes → applies to all humanity

• Kites → depend on wind → humans are subject to forces beyond control (nature, fate)

• Alt reading: Suggests illusion of freedom → actually controlled by invisible forces

AO3

• Dharker presents human life as fragile and controlled by external forces, reinforcing the limits of human power

structure and form

• Free verse → no rigid structure → reflects fluidity and impermanence

• Enjambment → ideas flow → mirrors instability of human systems

• Lack of clear stanza control → reinforces absence of permanence

• Motif of paper → repeated → symbol of fragility across identity, power, and memory

• Final shift to human body (“skin”, “tissue”) → makes abstract ideas personal and physical

best comparison

Ozzy - power is temp and can collapse

London - human systems control and shape identity

prelude - human power vs greater forces

grade 9 insight

Dharker presents conflict as human attempts to construct identity and power versus the inevitability of impermanence, showing that all structures—political, personal, and social—are fragile, temporary, and ultimately beyond human control.