Poetry by Ally Chua

                Jeff Ruane CC



monument valley

the miles of sundry road, frost front 
jarring against walls of red chalk, against 
tumbleweed sea.         

                                                              that night 

with three layers of thermal wear            
i sat in the dark

                              watched the        
                              parallel universe in the stars.

i               saw                      everything. 
not shaman visions. not ephemeral wisps.
 
but grand stands. 
                  celestial battles. 
                                                 light dying
                                                 in a flare of bright. 

i was half dead then, lost in a space
where i was eating myself apart.

it is not within me 
               to leave a fissure untouched.
i will hold it, grasp it, until
the mouth wakes, 
               says my name in a gasp.

               i did not understand
how to deal with a fissure 
                              i cannot touch. 

that night in monument valley,    
i saw everything.


                                              the natural order 
                                              of entropy

the inevitability
of collapse. 
                                               so i learnt then

                               it was okay
                               to hold an abyss.

                               it was okay
                               to be unfinished. 

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Ally Chua is a Singaporean poet. She works for a botanical attraction, and writes when she's not replying to emails within seven working days. She is the 2019 Singapore Unbound Fellow for New York City, and a member of local writing collective /s@ber. Ally has been published in Quarterly Literary Review Singapore, Cordite Poetry Review, and Lammergeier Magazine.

An avid solo traveler and reader, Ally finds inspiration from a wide variety of sources, including her travels, Richard Siken's words, the lyrics of Brian Fallon, and zombie video games.

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