Poetry by K. Y. Sia

             Jane Rahman CC



​
Hitherto

The wound has begun to heal, 
leaving a long mark.
I notice nothing then feel

everything. Cracked open 
to the sting of salt,
aware that this is being.

And pain is common enough, 
and matters less than
what it took to overcome.

Scars map out a narrative, 
show what is survived. 
Everybody bears a galaxy.

How humbling for stardust to 
constitute to flesh
and learn, unreservedly,

that these are the conditions 
of being alive:
to be constantly grateful

to be here at all;
and understand how this is
a gentle mercy,
knowing we are that which would
someday lead back to the world.





Event Horizon

At the edge of a black hole
is the act of letting go--

Hawking’s radiation:
leave what you must behind.

Everything once known and loved;
every sweet heartache--

let it go. Let it slip
from your grip and explode
into a million things.

Run as fast as you can. 
Mark that space with your freedom.





Lessons in Life


1.
Even the earth knows
the only way is forward
and we age with it.

2.
The woman wears her
happiness well, bright yellow
like calla lilies.

3.
She finally learned
that mayflies seize each moment
because they have to.

4.
A swift skylark gives
a furry caterpillar
its first taste of flight.

5.
Beneath a candle
a moth nurses a burnt wing,
regretting nothing. 
​

K. Y. Sia is a freelance writer and editor. She does minor translations. Some of her poems can be seen in Gangan Internationales Literaturmagazin, 3 a.m. Magazine, Locust Magazine, and so on. Ever since her disease has made her immobile and hands uncooperative, she continues to write using dictation tools, which invention she is immensely grateful for.

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