Survival

A prominent theme in Tishani Doshi’s poem “Wasps at the Faucet” is survival. Both the speaker and the wasps seek access to the faucet, which is a source of water. Without water, the wasps cannot cool their nests or remain hydrated. Similarly, the human speaker requires water to drink, clean, and bathe. Since the poem takes place in February, readers might assume that the heat plaguing the wasps implies a tropical setting. Without water, both the wasps and the human speaker would perish, which is why they engage in conflict. Overall, the speaker acknowledges how each side’s survival instincts contribute to a violent and tenuous encounter.

The drive to survive is often not a conscious choice but rather an evolutionary mechanism. The wasps risk individual annihilation at the hands of the speaker for the benefit of the whole colony. When the speaker waves a...