Poetry – Sumitra Singam
I feel like a poem Nikki Giovanni is about to write
Something deceptively
simple with crisp
language a clear geography
written by a Black
woman who refuses
to accept her oppressed state
by moving her
body through her lovers like
smoke in an underground jazz club
a landscape of cities, women,
men that at the moment of penetration
stings like warmth on cold skin
like the truth
hers but
universal
Sumitra Singam is a Malaysian-Indian-Australian coconut who writes in Naarm/Melbourne. She travelled through many spaces, both beautiful and traumatic to get there and writes to make sense of her experiences. Her work has been published widely, nominated for a number of Best Of anthologies, and was selected for Best Microfictions 2024. She works as a psychiatrist and trauma therapist and runs workshops on how to write trauma safely, and the Yeah Nah reading series. She’ll be the one in the kitchen making chai (where’s your cardamom?). You can find her and her other publication credits on Bluesky: @pleomorphic2 & sumitrasingam.squarespace.com
