Anne Yeoh, Singapore
a patch of scales blooms on my skin—
the doctor calls it stress—
like that on a fish
limp in my hands. it shines silver.
a sudden fear rises in my throat,
threatens to bloom like the flowers
that die, their petals drifting
softly to the ground. it is all just litter,
quickly swept away like freshly cut hair.
each strand falling in quick succession
as i fall silent, shuddering as though racked
by grief at the futility of it all—
the scales, the hair, the fish, the flowers.
but the hair grew back, the scales
grew smooth and the flowers bloomed
again, as did you, as did i.
Anne Yeoh is an artist from Singapore. She enjoys writing poetry and drawing webcomics. Both are attempts at communicating her experiences while making sense of them on the page. Her work has been published in the poetry anthology My Lot Is A Sky.
