No.

Tenzin Dickie

No. I am learning how to say no.

I knew once… No. No.

I could say no all day long.

No longer. But

I am learning.

Babies do it easily. No! No!

I could do it too. Just follow the

Men & children who say no

Like they’re giving a gift.

But I am a woman and

No woman is an island, so

I am told. No. All women

Are islands, submerged

And yet showing,

Like icebergs.

So I’ve started collecting Nos,

Stacking them on top

Of each other like a

Tetris of Tibetan

Letters.

No. To invitations & inquiries,

For time & grace,

Compassion & under-

Standing, for tender

Loving care,

For attention &

Detention. Wherefore

Should I detain myself?

And why should I

Scatter myself?

I refuse.

No.

Tenzin Dickie is a writer, translator, and editor. She is editor of Old Demons, New Deities: Twenty One Short Stories from Tibet (O/R Books, 2017) and The Penguin Book of Modern Tibetan Essays (Penguin India, 2023). Her writing has been anthologized in Modern English Poetry by Younger Indians published by the Indian Academy of Letters, Under the Blue Skies: A Tibetan Reader by Blackneck Books, and The Tibet Reader, forthcoming from Duke University Press. She is a former Fulbright fellow, and currently works as Communications Officer at Harvard Library, Harvard University.