Queen Fisher, by Elise Ofilada

There Is No Deeper Meaning To This by, Deji Eclarin (Philippines). Contemporary.

Queen Fisher

                             i.

           her body is an undulation.
                           
                            ii.

her body is
    a new translation
of the tide

              that slept
           with our prettiest
                        girls:

                               this one slurping milk
                       behind the wet market,

this one yanking braids
   loose beneath the fish tank,

                            iii.

her body is thick with light and orange
  seeping into the vernacular;                
                                      sea rhymes with men
                       such that wife rhymes with lose      

the lines of your face
  in favour of salt--

                           losing means you touched me
                                    against the local shore,

  touching means i swam through you
  starting with the roll of tongue.

                                  iv.
    
        her body is a non-horizon

and soon nothing will ever come through. no
names   may  be  kept,   for  there   are   only
motions.  no  woman  may  find  herself  dry.
there is only a gaze, and an emptiness within
it. there is only the need
                                               
                                                  to be filled.


Elise Ofilada


Elise Ofilada is a student at Ateneo Senior High School, and Editor-in-Chief of its publication, Pugad Literary Folio. She was a fellow for Creative Writing in Artswork 2016, and her work has appeared online, as well as local anthologies. Her work may be found at  leonaeqsue.tumblr.com. She lives in the Philippines.