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Ritual for a Fever

“Susmaryosep.”
Eyes shut, old housekeeper
pours the solution over me:
Lagundi, bayabas, sambong.
Riotous scent
heady in roiling water.
Maligno, spare your
erring daughter.
Diwata, relent.
Aba Ginoong Maria,
look down on me
lying in bed, nursing
fever, frame unmoving.

 


Soleil David was born and raised in the Philippines and now lives in Los Angeles. She graduated with high distinction from the University of California, Berkeley. She is a 2017 PEN Center USA Emerging Voices Fellow and a recipient of the Julia Keith Shrout Short Story Prize. Her poetry and prose have been published in Our Own Voice, The Philippine Daily Inquirer, Pittsburgh Poetry Review, and the Asian American Writers’ Workshop The Margins.

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