LIT 111A

CHAPTER III LESSON 4

Name: _______________________ Date:______________

Yr/Crs/Sec:____________________ Subject: ____________

OPEN-END QUALITY
By Lilia Lopez-Chua

Lilia Lopez-Chua (1956) is a graduate of Creative Writing from Boston University. Lopez Chua’s poetry
has been published in three special issues of the “Road Map Series” in Davao

I like open ends too,

a house with front door
and a back open
where you can skip in and out
and not be some bread stuffed into a toaster
charred and burnt
with no other choice
but to lie in there
‘til some nut comes
to help you out.

I do not want to be helpless

like some jack-in-the box
always waiting for Jackie Boy
to loosen an end
to stick my neck out
only to be smashed
flat, till the tip of my head
meets the base of my feet.

I want to stretch my arms

and legs far and wide
to shed off my shadow
if I like-
to take off my head, body
legs and arms and

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 run around only with myself
naked and perfect
an open-end quality.

Direction: Read the poem and grasp its suggestions and implications.

A. Fill in the table with the appropriate information taken from the text. Number one has been done
for you. What are the things that the speaker likes, doesn’t like, wants, doesn’t want?

What she likes/wants What she doesn’t like/want

1. Open ends Not some bread

B. Answer the following questions.

1. What must be the speaker’s struggle?

2. What kind of situation is the speaker in?

3. Why do you think she is in this situation?

4. What kind of like does she want?

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5. What kind of feeling is expressed in this line: “always waiting for Jackie Boy to loosen an end, to stick
my neck out, only to be smashed flat”?

6. Recall and retell the times in your life when you just wanted to be free and be yourself.

7. How can the men in society help liberate women?

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