Christina Sng

Christina Sng is the Bram Stoker and Elgin Award-winning author of A Collection of Nightmares and Astropoetry. Her work has appeared in numerous venues worldwide and garnered over 70 awards and nominations, including the 2018 Jane Reichhold International Prize, the 2016 Harold G. Henderson Award, and Honourable Mentions in the Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror and the Best Horror of the Year.

The Division of Twins

I hate that we parted again on bad terms but how could we help it? We have been fighting non-stop since we were born—over toys, over boys, over space, over property, and most of all, over who Mom and Dad loved more. Yet when you boarded that plane to leave the country for good, I knew it would be the last time I ever saw you and I was instantly regretful and sorry. I never saw the oncoming car.

~

Like Birds in the Shimmering Clouds

I made my daughter a promise

When she was born.

She would fly like a bird

And rule the skies,

Live free

From tyranny and terror.

In the sky, she could be

Whatever she wanted to be,

Mold the clouds into birds

And birds into clouds

Till soon she’d’ve made

A whole world of her own.

*

I made my daughter a promise

When she was born.

I would learn to fly like a bird

And rule the skies

Far from the wars and sadness

On the ground.

We’d live free

From tyranny and terror,

Graze the moon

With our growing feathers,

Slumber and dream

Of universes yet unseen

As we drift full circles

Around the sky orb.

*

I made my daughter a promise

When she was born.

We would fly like birds

Free in the sky

Untouched by the terrors

On the ground.

Together

We’d watch the world go by

Through the safe shroud

Of the shimmering clouds.

~

Wild Rose

coalesced cells

star stuff formed

into a baby

youngest child

a long train

of stuffed animals

shooting star

the moon lands

in my teacup

in desolation

the desert flower

blooms

hunter’s moon

the old cat finally

catches her quarry

full circle

I return

to the stars

~

Girlhood

unpretty

the thorns of envy

among roses

chipping away

at my self-esteem

woodpeckers

snow globe

shaking me out

of my comfort zone

Halley’s comet

a road trip

on my own

menopause

my teenage tattoo

now blue

Christina Sng is the Bram Stoker and Elgin Award-winning author of A Collection of Nightmares and Astropoetry. Her work has appeared in numerous venues worldwide and garnered over 70 awards and nominations, including the 2018 Jane Reichhold International Prize, the 2016 Harold G. Henderson Award, and Honourable Mentions in the Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror and the Best Horror of the Year.

Love Game

the memory

of your kiss

strawberries

granite moon

we clash wills

over another non-issue

deadwood

your reluctance

to hold my hand

solo dinner

quiet Monday

at the diner

old love

the rush I feel seeing you

still new

~

Housewife

motherhood

the soft curves

of a pear

sandwiched

by my children

three BLTs

sundown

the children’s voices

an octave higher

midnight repairs

pats on the back

I give myself

dusting

blissful thoughts

of oblivion

dry leaf

a life once

lived

~

Girl on Fire

For Minz and Maunz who had to see this

Little girl

Plays with matches

While her parents are out.

The cats wail for her to stop.

Too late!

The flames light her up

Like a Christmas tree

While her poor cats cry out for help.

She burns and burns

Till she is ash

And bone.

The cats weep a brook in their home.

(Reinterpreted from Heinrich Hoffmann’s Die gar traurige Geschichte mit dem Feuerzeug in Struwwelpeter)