“6513 miles of wall. 51 degrees high. 99 degrees wide. I listen to her voice though oceans of fortress and phoneline. I listen to her voice through cracks in the stone.

But the wall is not just distance alone:
The wall is her skin. The wall is her flesh. The wall is the cage of her ribs that play cavern to her leaky heart.

This heart that she has taken back to her kingdom on the other side of the receiver.

Her elusive heart. Her traitorous heart. The heart for which I will plunge my fists through delicately layered combinations of cement and tissue. The heart for which I will charge through boundaries of bone and brick, make myself tall like a giant, strong like lead, sure-footed as a cat with nothing to lose.

My lover is a wall.

My lover or longitude, lover of latitude, lover of meeting points made up be coordinates. Can you hear me from over there? I am back-stepping. Getting ready to run. I am gaining speed, rushing up against your fort, defying gravity, scaling your skin.

I will find you on the other side.”

― Tania De Rozario, My Jericho

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Part of GASPP, A gay anthology of Singapore poetry and prose edited by Ng Yi-Sheng, Dominic Chua, Irene Oh and Jasmine Seah