The poems of the Indonesian poet Ikhda Ayuning Maharsi Degoul featured inThe Goldfishtrace a journey of self-awareness and rebirth from the limited world of a fishbowl to a freedom that was difficult to achieve. The narratives are surreal and thought-provoking and challenge stereotypes concerning femininity in an often-fragmented discourse. Ayuning Maharsi Degoul’s explorations play with the ‘inhuman’ qualities of the fish but also evoke the realistic condition of a woman being constricted because of her limited environment. Her anger and disillusionment are expressed in continuous provocations that envisage sheer rebellion and suggest alternatives:
Stars are starving
Cats are getting mad
My mouth
wide open
O what I –
I need to be a newborn
immediately
delivered by a long river
O what I –
I
need
to give birth to the newest meevery day
Ovulating my apperception.(‘The Goldfish’)
‘O revolt!’ is announced in the poem ‘Rebellion Red’; she…
View original post 391 more words