In this sensual and evocative poem, the simple act of eating a fig becomes a way of bringing a war-torn body back to life.
Figged Bodies
Strength of my hands, holding.
My face a kaleidoscope, waiting.
As I steal myself words from a battlefield
my lungs backfire canons into my chest
my centre does not hold.
I become a tree branch, bent
backwards from the middle of me.
Some great worm tickles my brain.
The yolk of me, centre darkening,
things fall apart.
My Insides leave me be,
all so very sick of me.
I hold my Self in the heat of my body,
I am composed of retinal movements.
Eyes flit backwards, spine switching –
concave to linear to convex
I feed my mouth a fig.
The plump tender of it against my lips
the kinetics of the Act: tongue on teeth on gums
Smoothing the slipping seeds out
the skin of the fig caught onto my canines.
Strength of my hands, releasing.
My face quiet as the snow.
Words clink around my head,
all full bodied beauties.
Scent of the fig, all wet behind my ears.
About Rojbîn Arjen Yigit
Rojbîn Arjen is a Kurdish writer and incoming Medical student living in London. She has written for Bad Form, Gal-Dem, Lucy Writers, AZEEMA and The Meridian Magazine. She is a contributing writer for the Periphery Magazine. She is involved in a collaborative writing project with the Ruppin Agency – ‘What The Water Gave Us’, working to publish a hardcopy anthology focusing on the migrant experience. Her creative writing has been heavily influenced by the musicality and lyricism of her mother tongue. She currently volunteers for IKWRO – an organisation dedicated to supporting women who have faced FGM and other forms of Honour based abuse. Twitter/Instagram: @rojbinarjen
This poem was written as part of our latest mini-series, Our Body’s Bodies
Everything is written on the body – but what does it mean to write about our bodies in the era of Covid-19? And is it possible to write about bodily experiences in the face of such pervasive and continued violence? Using different modes of writing and art making, Lucy Writers presents a miniseries featuring creatives whose work, ideas and personal experiences explore embodiment, bodily agency, the liberties imposed on, taken with, or found in our bodies. Beginning from a position of multiplicity and intersectionality, our contributors explore their body’s bodies and the languages – visual, linguistic, aural, performance-based and otherwise – that have enabled them to express and reclaim different forms of (dis)embodiment in the last two years. Starting with the body(s), but going outwards to connect with encounters that (dis)connect us from the bodies of others – illness, accessibility, gender, race and class, work, and political and legal precedents and movements – Our Body’s Bodies seeks to shine a light on what we corporally share, as much as what we individually hold true to.
Bringing together work by artistic duo Kathryn Cutler-MacKenzie and Ben Caro, author Ayo Deforge, poet Emily Swettenham, writer and poet Elodie Rose Barnes, writer and researcher Georgia Poplett, writer and researcher Hannah Hutchings-Georgiou and many others, as well as interviews with and reviews of work by Elinor Cleghorn, Lucia Osbourne Crowley and Alice Hattrick, Lucy Writers’ brings together individual stories of what our bodies have endured, carried, suffered, surpassed, craved and even enjoyed, because…these bodies are my body; we are a many bodied being. Touch this one, you move them all, our bodies’ body.
We also welcome pitches and contributions from writers, artists, film-makers and researchers outside of the Lucy Writers’ community. Please enquire for book reviews too.
For submissions relating to trans and non-binary culture email dytorfrankie@gmail.com
For poetry submissions email elodierosebarnes@gmail.com
For reviews, non-fiction submissions and general enquiries email hannah.hutchings-georgiou.16@ucl.ac.uk
Submissions are open from 6 January 2022 until April 2022.
For the full Call Out, click here.
Feature image: Untitled by Fahrelnissa Zeid, under fair use
