The Doubt by Kamala Das

Does it not mean that we believe that only the soul has sex and that sex is invisible?

The Doubt

by Kamala Das ¹

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When a man is dead, or a woman,
We call the corpse not he
or she but it. Does it
Not mean that we believe
That only the soul has sex and that
Sex is invisible?
Then the question is, who
Is the man, who the girl,
All sex-accessories being no
Indication, Is she
A male who with frail hands
Clasps me to her breast, while
The silence in her sickroom, turning
Eloquent, accuses
Me of ingratitude?
And is he female who 
After love, smooths out the bed sheets with
Finicky hands and plucks
From pillows Strands of hair?
...How well I can see him 
After a murder, conscientiously
Tidy up the scene, wash
The bloodstains under the 
Faucet, bury the knife...
And what am I in sex who shuttles
Obsessively from his
Stabs to recovery
In her small silent room?

1. Selected Poems (2014, Penguin Modern Classics)