Poetry by Kika Man

             Sue Thompson CC



The milky way is up.

I spent my childhood following the arrow 
of this broken compass, always pointing West
and East at the same time. I pretended 

I could see the Northern star,
safely tucked in the tail of the Bears.
No one knew I couldn’t read the star signs.

Never mind my kind and helpful disposition,
when they call upon a “Chinese volunteer” 
don’t hesitate for a second, fingers pointing at me – East. 

And when I grew older, so did my callowness.
My eyes, sticking to every screen set on far away.
I was a mermaid wishing to become a human.

Finding the company of the written word, 
the singing of those I passionately adored.
The words of people I never met.

And the fire roared, and I burned. I swim no longer.
I know I was not born a dragon but an ox,
carrying my life, dredging it over fields of mud.

I used to think people would ask me and my friend
if we were sisters, because we were so close.
Yet no one could recognise that we were two 

very different people. 
I guess Chink meant the same 
to those who do not want to know what it means

to have your classmates on the playground slide
their fingers across their eyes,
marking who you are supposed to be.

It took me twenty-two years 
to realise I am more than half my mother, half
my father. I say it again:

I am not half. I am a whole, 
I am the daughter of two galaxies meeting.
My own milky way.

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Kika Man 文詠玲 (26 May, 1997; she/they) is a writer and a student from Belgium, and also from Hong Kong. She has always been writing and playing and learning and reading. To them, all of these are one and the same. Kika writes about mental health, traveling and dreaming, about her mixed identity, about music and blueness. Alongside writing poetry, she is part of Slam-T (a spoken word & slam poetry platform). They have majored in Eastern Languages and Cultures: China at Ghent University and are currently chasing after a degree and PhD in Gender and Diversity and Cultural studies. Kika’s first poetry book will be published soon in 2021-2022.

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