Amelia Fielden

Eau de Nil

Silk scarf in lightish grey-green draped around a poet’s neck.

Agatha Christie’s “Death on the Nile”.

The fabled river flowing opaquely through Egyptian history.

That young woman, a stranger, at the university’s spring ball on the arm of Hunter, universal heart-throb.

He called her Deidre.* A beauty with the whitest of complexions, and pre-Raphaelite

auburn hair, who floated across the floor in eau de nil chiffon.

 
After his graduation Hunter disappeared with Deidre into China.

Teaching English in Beijing, it was rumoured.

Australia had no diplomatic relations with Communist China in those days.
 

Next I heard of them back in our country living in seclusion on a small farm.

There … according to gossip … Hunter eventually drank himself to an early death.


( Christie’s mystery was solved for me by Hercule Poirot.

But I’ve wondered about Deidre.)

belle of the ball
beloved of a maverick
Deidre
uncrowned queen of sorrows
Deidre in eau de nil

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About the Author

Amelia Fielden is Australian. She is a professional Japanese translator and a keen writer of traditional Japanese forms of poetry in English. Her most recent collection is These Purple Years (Ginninderra Press, 2018).