“the merlion”, Alexis An Yee Low

you tore my seabed
open like a fish
gutted in the ocean.
the hook
flung me into the
void above,

to whispers of ‘please,
we need you’.

you took my guts,
my breath, my brethren –

then you whitened
my scales like teeth, shining
like windowpanes,
and as brittle.

unmoored, I writhe –
and you say ‘do not worry,
we are safe.’

my eyes were bleached,
body taxidermized,
tail burnt into the ground.

and you say
‘gaze upon our history,
how far we have come –

and look how we honour the sacrifice.'

/ Alexis An Yee Low is a medical student, neuroscientist and powerlifter, and has as many existential crises as she has tasks. Poetry is, however, an excellent coping mechanism. She hopes to one day make people wonder if her latest publication will be a paper or a poem. Tweets can be found at @Alexis_AnYee.