Chua Jia Wen
Issue 1: RISE, July 2023
when the sun has set and my eyes are spared the sky’s streaming
blindness you will still be the god that vanished upon being revered that i
will must stumble back into one day though i know not how or when still
adulterating even in your stilling absence making me a murk in my joy my
sorrow some nights ago in a dream i stood in a vacant carpark and stared
at glinting signs bearing your name in the black letters of legislation and
the signs said all the lots were yours though there were no cars at all i
stood and stared and thought you brilliant beyond belief quite frankly i
understand little of this life much less the dream or the self from which it
sprang like an unbidden child i suspect you would know the answer better
than i ever could do you remember our sudden recognition scene you
unlocking apologising for your lateness your mess when we spoke it was
hushed with happiness in the same tongues and i knew the names on your
walls your books also waiting to be laid flat and yielding i think life is about
hoping to be read yes that is what i think as you weigh my words in your
mouth with an anticipatory twang-tang of sticky supple cherries knowing
exactly what i mean
Chua Jia Wen is currently studying English at Nanyang Technological University. She is especially interested in the work of James Joyce and Sylvia Plath.