"clean living", Ally Chua

even at 8am the hospital
is crowded. i'm not used

to the morning universe, the idea
of people living full lives before

the clock strikes nine. there are
twenty people before me, twenty

years older. i wait for hours
only to hear that my bones 

are burning out. i can't reconcile
this with my need to full throttle

the lever. if i wake up everyday 
at 6, eat only greens, look

both ways before i make 
every crossing, could i add 

another twenty years 
to my lifetime?

/ Ally Chua has been published in Quarterly Literary Review Singapore, Cordite Poetry Review, and Lammergeier Magazine. She was also the 2019 Singapore Unbound Fellow for New York City.

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