IN A SHOP IN NAKHON PATHOM
I almost bought
a Siamese fighting fish
furling and unfurling
like a flamenco dancer
a crimson swirl
in a cloudy tank
The seller said
the male was friendly
toward mollies & guppies
but would kill his own kind
would flare up
at his own reflection. He’s
gorgeous I gasped
and bent to better observe
this spiky-haired ruffian
with his shirt untucked
as he stomped & bristled
across the football field
but I glimpsed instead
through the quivering ferns
a shy ginger boy
cowering behind
bleachers
Bhavika Sicka is a Kutchi Gujarati writer and educator from Calcutta, India, currently settled in Norfolk, USA. She has been a finalist for the Times of India's 'Write India' contest and the recipient of the Dickseski Fiction Prize awarded by Old Dominion University. Her work has appeared in Lunch Ticket, Cold Mountain Review, Hunger Mountain, Waxwing, and Pleiades (forthcoming), among other journals.