involuntarily nocturnal by Low Kian Seh

it’s 2 am and I have been supine, still

not able to sleep, for hours, wondering

who painted my ceiling this unevenly as

I process organic half-lines that I really

am trying to stuff into a skin of a poem,

underneath which is bare-boned frame

but devoid of flesh. gaunt. hollowed.

what is still missing is nerve. a heart

I can feel for, pumping lifeblood. lines

do not breathe when lungless. words

that staccato pulse are offbeat. a poem

defines me as ink tattoos to paper—another

me, sinewed piecemeal into homunculus

“It’s not who I am underneath, but what I do that defines me.” - Batman Begins (2005)

Low Kian Seh has a chemical engineering degree but is an artist to a larger degree. He is a chemistry teacher by occupation but has poetry as preoccupation. He always makes time to write, despite being a busy civil servant and father-of-three. His works had been published in SingPoWriMo anthologies, A Luxury We Cannot Afford, A Luxury We Must Afford, Twin Cities, Anima Methodi, Contour, and other publications. He won first prize in Singapore’s National Poetry Competition 2019 and had poems going viral before. Since 2022, he has been involved in Poetry Festival Singapore, such as hosting the event, Catharsis.

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