The Fish, Anaylsis.

wade
through black jade.
Of the crow-blue mussel-shells, one keeps
adjusting the ash-heaps;
opening and shutting itself like

I feel that this is symbolic of women writers of the time period and the struggles they had to become 'successful.' They must wade through darkness and solid matter, sift through the prose and poetry of women authors who have long since died.

an
injured fan.
The barnacles which encrust the side
of the wave, cannot hide
there for the submerged shafts of the

sun,
split like spun
glass, move themselves with spotlight swiftness
into the crevices—
in and out, illuminating

the
turquoise sea
of bodies. The water drives a wedge
of iron through the iron edge
of the cliff; whereupon the stars,

I feel that this is symbolic towards the way that although women writers have tried to hide behind androgynous names, male critics still blare the spotlight on their short comings and in the male point of view ineptitude towards the art of writing. The water iron is symbolic of the two ways women must internally navigate through housewifery and duty and the need to create and not let atrophy take over the creative muscle of the mind, a cliff one must take a leap of faith with or ignore to the quiet discontent of housewifery and duty.

pink
rice-grains, ink-
bespattered jelly fish, crabs like green
lilies, and submarine
toadstools, slide each on the other.

Pink is a feminine color and rice is traditional at weddings in order to promote good fortune and fertility. The jelly fish, crabs and toadstools could all by symbolic to the three faces of Eve. The crabs- like lily's indicate that while pretty on the outside the core of woman is much harsher. Going along with this imagery is the toadstools which are poisonous. Jelly fish also pretty to look at but poisonous stingers align to show that woman is a creature of nature that may look pretty, or harmless has a poison or mean streak hiding in her bosom.

All
external
marks of abuse are present on this
defiant edifice—
all the physical features of

ac-
cident—lack
of cornice, dynamite grooves, burns, and
hatchet strokes, these things stand
out on it; the chasm-side is

dead.
Repeated
evidence has proved that it can live
on what can not revive
its youth. The sea grows old in it.

This I believe reestablishes the fact that women writers have been scorned and as a result many have their creativity killed. However, it is also saying that creativity can procure out of experience of growing up and that knowledge envelops itself in the mind of women in their creative abodes. Overall I think the fish is a metaphor for womens creative muscle and the way it has been spurned throughout history and although facing so many obstacles is still able to live in the slimy, dark, submerge of male dominated society.