halfmoon-ie

[halfmoon-ie]

The Moon's Lover Muse they call me. But I have only ever fancied being yours.

"My moon..."

To have known you has been my only solace among the endless velvet black and diamond stars. It is not I who is heartless. It is you. For I have chased you for thousands of miles.

I just want to be yours.

signed, moon 🌙

[halfmoon-ie]

Menyuam Xob (Lightning Child) The waters became turbulent and the waves ravaged as if the gods above wanted to flood this earth. My eyes could barely keep open due to the pelting rain, the wind whipped the wisps of my hair in every which way. A loud thunderous screeching roar filled my ears, as a looming creature made its way out of the crashing waves; a dark shadow protruded slowly from its surface, and stood amidst the chaotic storm. In the blackened sky, its reptilian eyes glowed like jeweled topaz, narrowing its gaze on me. I heaved in a shaky breath, deathly afraid of what was to come next. My heart knocked hard against my ribcage, I felt like I would collapse. Move your legs, stupid! Run! Do something! My legs seemed to have a mind of its own, I couldn’t move at all. The sky pelted down at me with no halt, soaking me from head to toe as I stood at the edge of the sea, shivering. A lightning bolt flashed across the night sky and revealed a huge sea serpent with its shimmering ivory scales, and all its monstrous teeth. My eyes widened in disbelief, as I stumbled backwards onto the dampened earth. I clenched my fists into the sand so hard, till I felt my nails sink into my skin, drawing blood. It stung. And therefore this was not a dream. 

The serpent plunged back into the sea and resurfaced right in front of me within mere seconds, screeching as it slithered onto land, proceeding to coil its long body around my frame. Its piercing cry echoed in chorus with the thunder, and eventually subsided down to a low throaty growl. The creature weaved around me tighter, its crystallized eyes stared at me whichever way I turned. 

"W-what do you want with me?" I whispered, rolling myself into a tight fetal position, I covered my hands over my ears.

"Human child born of chaos, would you like to hear a story?" Its hot breath reeked of rotting flesh and its voice sounded of a million souls speaking all at once. I could barely hear my own thoughts. I wished I was the size of a grain of sand. I did the only thing I knew I could do: let my heart cry for help. 

I call upon the spirits of the earth, the sky, and the elder of lightning, please help me. Please, help this mere mortal. Thunder roared  loudly above, it shook the ground, and it  felt as if  the earth would open up and swallow me whole. Streaks of lightning lit up the sky, and then I felt a force so great meet the earth, throwing me up high into the air and landing with a thud onto my stomach. Immediately the wind was knocked out from my windpipes. I wanted to shout, to scream, but no sound came.  All I could register was the high pitch ringing in my ears. I rolled over and hunched forward on all fours before breathing in my first coherent breath. I exhaled into a haggard cough, sputtering saliva in every which way before heaving in heaps of air. 

“Do not touch the lightning child, Serpent. This is your first and last warning.” A male voice ripped through the unbearable ringing and immediately I felt a calm wash over me. I slowly began registering all that was happening. Before me stood a well built man, towering at probably 8 feet tall. His long hair did not bend to the howling wind of the storm, but its wisps wavered as if we were standing under water.  It was ethereal. (uh theer rial)  He donned white robes that illuminated a pure light, and in his right hand he held a giant saber, energized with yellow lightning streaks. His feet did not brush the ground, it merely hovered. My haggard breathing steadied as I saw the serpent slowly retract back into the water, its beastly eyes held mine till its head finally dunked under the water’s surface and disappeared. I collapsed onto the ground feeling high off of adrenaline. I sensed a warm sticky substance drenching my back.  Scrambling back up I quickly swiped my hand across it before studying it. To my dismay I discovered I had lain in a puddle of blood. Frantic, I looked down at myself, searching for a wound. Was I bleeding? Will I die? I don’t feel anything 

“Do not worry lightning-child. It is not your blood but the serpent’s. You are safe.” The man 

walked towards me and lightly tapped two fingers to my forehead and then everything faded to black. signed, moon 🌙

Johnson Cheung-shing Tsang: A Painful Pot (2013)

[halfmoon-ie]

The Flower Wilts

The butterfly asked the flower, "Why are your petals wilting?" and the flower explained, " ...because the south wind loves me and he caresses me as he passes by."

The butterfly gently kissed the remaining petals of the flower and exclaimed solemnly, "You're quite silly, wilting one. The south wind does not love you, he does what he wants. He comes and he goes freely– and you keep wilting a piece for him every day. And soon... all of you will cease to exist."

But the flower did not sulk, it indeed smiled at the butterfly.

"Sometimes, love is worth wilting for."

signed, moon 🌙

Wen Shu (1595-1634)

[halfmoon-ie]

The wick of the candle now drew in darkness, leaving behind only a suspending serpentine cloud caught in a chase by the visiting breeze. Time counts its wrinkles as the night sky sheds light onto the sleeping girl's face. The remaining golden specs of scales on his human arms shimmer underneath the gaze of the moon goddess as he draws nearer to the girl. He observes her porcelain features, imagining the fluttering of her dark eyelashes as she could awaken any moment now, the sensation matching his own fluttering heartbeat. Subconsciously, he reaches a hand out and ever so lightly brushes a finger along the bridge of her nose down to the tip of her pinkish lips. A soft grumble and slight grimace was her response. A smile tugs at his lips, as he proceeds to thumb the creases on her forehead smoothing out her disgruntled expression. He pulls his hand away startled by his own actions, realizing that he could not pull his heart with the same ease. In the presence of human beauty, he thought it tragic that she would never wear his love as her perfume and thus a great pain thrummed through his chest.  signed, moon 🌙 **artwork credits go to original artist.

[halfmoon-ie]

The God Who Waits

I approached the sea view like a shy child, amazed by the breath-taking scenery in front of me. It was a beautiful clear night, lit with a million stars, a bright silver moon hung above. The ocean waves crashed against the shore rhythmically, warm waves lapped at my ankles, and a small breeze kept the wisps of my hair dancing in the air. I turned around to see strings of red lanterns lit, a magical glow luminated throughout the shoreline. The beach was filled with vendors, selling little trinkets, food and dried fruits covered in sugar on sticks. A replica of a beautiful wooden pagoda with roof tops tilted towards the sky stood ahead. People were streaming in and out of it, chit-chatting and laughing. Everyone donned on beautiful silk robes, their hair adorned with gold and silver pins. Many of the girls held floral fans, slightly covering their nose and mouth, a sign of modesty. It was just like a scene out of a Chinese period drama.

All I could remember was that my friend and I had traveled a few states over to attend an event where people could come and rent hanfus to wear and walk the beach as if we were in ancient China. I panned down to look at myself, I had donned an all white hanfu adorned with purple magnolias. It was flowy and seemed to be lit with the night stars. From far away, I could hear the sound of a familiar voice. My friend waved me over, behind her, I noticed that there was a docked ship. I slowly start to tread towards my friend, feeling the silk sand beneath my bare feet. When I arrived, the ship was much bigger than I thought, it had three floors and loomed over like a giant. I walked in with a random group of people, as I did not see my friend at the entrance of the ship anymore. It seemed that the night event had turned the ship into some sort of museum. On the walls of the ship, held real ancient paintings and items from an era we could only read about now. I roamed aimlessly and gradually drifted away from the big groups and chattering noise. I entered a room filled with instructions on how to make paper lanterns. A few of them sat on the shelves of the room, beautifully painted of sunset sceneries and rainbow skies. You could walk through an opening and come to the edge of the boat. As I looked around the room some more, I could make out a dark silhouette sitting on the edge of the boat. I thought to myself, "Isn’t that kind of dangerous?" "What if that person falls overboard?"

I guess it didn't matter, the ship was docked anyways. I shrugged and looked elsewhere. I panned over to a lantern sitting in the corner, it looked slightly worn out, but it caught my attention. It was a simple white lantern, with an image of a female and male. The female was suspended in the air, and the male stood on the ground with his arms held out towards her, as if she was being torn away from him. Not knowing the story, I abruptly felt a sadness wash over me. Before I could ponder my emotions, I felt a hot breath so close to my right ear. A deep male voice ripped through the stillness of the night.

“Do you like that lantern?”

I dropped the lantern and quickly cupped my ear in surprise. I turned to meet the stranger, slowly looking up. His hanfu was a deep blood red, it draped behind him like a serpentine tail, but made of clothing. The moonlight filtered through the openings made by the boat beams and laid on his being, darkening his facial features, but I could already feel the butterflies fluttering in my belly. The pantheon of whatever gods were probably looking for him, they were missing one, because he was standing right here. He had dark lashes, brown topaz eyes, a sharp jawline and a taunting smile that pulled more on one side, almost looking like a playful smirk. His ebony hair flowed down his back, some spilling over his shoulder as he leaned in towards me. I carefully stepped away from him and chuckled nervously, my cheeks growing hot. He then stooped down to pick up the fallen lantern and I saw the way he looked at it; a faint smile briefed his lips as if he was remembering a sweet memory.

“It’s quite a lovely, but heart wrenching painting on the lantern, yes.” I finally replied, as I got my senses together.

He was probably another person here just enjoying the lantern festival. He peered over at me, and I instantaneously looked anywhere but at him. “Uh, well, is this your first time at the lantern festival night? Or have you been here before?” I asked a random question just to ease the awkward air. There seemed to be a moment of hesitation before he gave me an answer.

“You could say, I’ve been here before. I paint these lanterns every year.” He chuckled slightly, before walking towards me again.

I looked up to meet his gaze and with a wave of his hand, all the lanterns on display suddenly lit up. I gasped ever so slightly, hovering a hand over my mouth, before letting out a small giggle.

“Wow, how- h-how did you do that?” He grinned, and spun himself in a full circle, as if to ask if I liked it. “Just a little trick I learned, nothing amazing.” He then walked back out to the edge of the boat, leaning his elbows on the ledge, as he looked back out to the night lit ocean view. I followed him to the edge, peering out as well. “Did you come alone?” He asked.

“Uh...no. I actually came with a friend, but I lost her in the crowd a while ago. How about you? Did you come alone?” I stared at him curiously, as he turned to look at me, one hand placed underneath his chin.

“Would you believe me if I told you that, I’ve actually been waiting for a friend to arrive on this boat for a thousand years now?” I raised my eyebrows to ponder his words before I laughed heartily.

“Ahhhh, you almost had me there! You definitely watch too many Chinese wuxia dramas!” I continued to laugh, until I realized that he might actually be genuine by the way his eyes never left me. My explosive laughter simmered down to an unsure smile. “You- you’re kidding, right? You don’t really expect me to believe in that?!” For a moment, it was like the wind had stopped its stirring and I could no longer hear the ocean waves crash up against the ship. It was as if time stood completely still.

“Well...all I have is time.” He let his gaze linger on me for a tad longer and for just a quick second I thought I saw sadness reflected in his eyes. I almost believed him, until he let out a snort and laughed. He then walks back towards the lantern room. “C’mon, I’ll paint a lantern for you. And for free, since you’ve entertained me with your gullible response.” I palmed my chest, and heaved a sigh of relief. His handsome face was to blame, he could probably make great cities fall. Like if Helen of Troy was a man, he would be it. I then proceeded to walk past him, hiding my reddened face.

“It’s really okay! I think I should get going and find my friend. Perhaps we’ll return for some of your lanterns later-” As I made my way towards the exit of the room, I suddenly felt a hand around my wrist. I turned to see the handsome stranger, his face seemingly twisted with mild frustration. I looked at him slightly confused.

“Why do you keep leaving?” His grip tightened and my wrist began to ache. I tried to wring free of his grasp, but he pulled me slightly towards him. “I’ve waited for a thousand years...a thousand years!” He let out a sarcastic chuckle. “And now you can’t even recognize my face anymore.” Before I could respond, he pulled me into his chest burying me in an embrace. I could feel his shoulders begin to shake as he began to cry. “Please, don’t leave me again…”

A bright golden light suddenly beamed down on us, and the godlike man screamed in agony before slowly losing strength in his legs. I collapsed to the ground with him, my arms still encasing him as he writhed in pain. Hot tears streamed down my face and I couldn’t understand why. There was something about this scene that felt achingly familiar. A loud voice from above spoke in tongues, overlapping with a thousand voices. I couldn’t understand anything. The stranger looked up at me and caressed one side of my face with his hand, a bittersweet smile danced across his lips. His voice barely a whisper, he exclaimed, “You can’t take her again.” And with all the strength he had left, he shouted to the heavens, “Why can’t you leave us alone!? Why can’t I have her!? She's mine!” And it was as if the heavens answered, I suddenly felt my body become as light as a feather. My body slowly lifted from the boat and away from him. He desperately reached his arms out to me, our hands slowly went from being interlocked to barely touching at the fingertips. The beaming golden light seemed to glow stronger and a piercing sound began to ring loudly, drowning out my senses. The man shouted again and again, “No, don’t take her!” Before I knew it, I was just bathing in light, nearly blinded.

Everything was a blur.

When I regained consciousness, I was floating above the clouds kissed by orange and violet sun rays. It was a beautiful sight. Up ahead was a huge gate with a glittering white palace. I began to make my way towards the gate when suddenly I was pushed back and began a rapid free fall down. Huge red silk ribbons began to descend down, dancing alongside me. I stretched out my arms frantically and tried so hard to grasp onto them in order to stop my decline, but to no avail. I fell for what felt like an eternity until I plopped right back into my bed, waking up in terror.

What a vivid dream it was. And at that, a heartbreaking one too. signed, moon 🌙 **artwork done by Khruri.

[halfmoon-ie]

The White Serpent I dreamt about living in a small village. Our village houses dotted the side of a mountain, clustered near a big body of water with a beautiful cascading waterfall. I could not see the waterfall; however, I could hear the droning sound of rushing water against stones. In the last couple of days, we had a huge rainfall, however today we had clear blue skies with a comforting breeze. I felt like a young child again, running through the grass barefoot with my arms outstretched, face tilted towards the sun, and wind against my skin. As I ran, my feet made loud splashes in the flooded field. For some reason I began to worry that I may find dead fish swept in from the swollen waterfall, or even worse, fish that were still alive. I then hear my mother’s voice call out from our bamboo house, “Me naib, mus nqa lub phiav los os!” We were hosting an event and so there were many things to be done.

I continued running. We happen to live on a huge cliff overhang, to which I started making my way towards the cliff end. The water below shimmered underneath the sun’s rays. It was truly a sight. Suddenly, a random thought crossed my mind, “I don’t want to see any water dragons.” The hairs on the back of my neck begin to rise at the thought of a large sea dragon breaking the water surface below. I began to jog backwards away from the cliff edge. My thoughts became rampant with repetition, “I don’t want to see a dragon. I don’t want to see a dragon. I don’t want to see a dragon.”

And then I am running again towards the direction of the giant pavilion bridge, it stretched further than the eye can see into the misty clouds. I wasn’t too sure where it connected to, but it was massive. As I ran, I spotted two white-grey dragons with red underbellies flying down from the sky. I became alarmed; and tried to pivot in my step in an attempt to run back towards my village. But suddenly I felt my body become super light, and eventually I was lifted from the ground. I am now in shock, still running in place, but not making any contact with the ground. I look up to the left of me and see the two dragons still coming towards me. I begin to thrash around, trying to get back on the ground. Everything seemed to move in slow motion. I continued to float towards the pavilion bridge, but it no longer was empty. Instead, I noticed the huge head of a white-gray dragon, this one far bigger and older. It was so huge; its entire body took up the whole bridge and stretched into the mist. I felt like a grain of rice compared to it. The dragon’s long whiskers moved in slow motion, mimicking the motion of hair underneath water. I flew closer and closer to it. I realized that this dragon was not a water dragon, but a sky dragon. Oddly, I felt that the dragon did not have harmful intentions. I felt some sort of tranquility in its' presence.

I thrashed around until I finally woke up into reality.

signed, moon 🌙 **artwork credits go to original artists.

[halfmoon-ie]

Under a blackened night sky, the city lights were too abundant for the stars to shine. I raced the streets on a motorcycle up a steep and busy street. Once I reached the top, I smiled because I knew the thrill of going down hill would be worth the climb. But as I rode down the hill, I lost control of my motorbike and maneuvered in and out of cars, trying to dodge death. On either side of the street stretched with woods, in which I clash into and fall off my bike. I remember tumbling down before knocking out and becoming blanketed with darkness. When I awaken, the silhouette of a person stands near me. I blink a few times and become aware of the pain that shoots through my entire body. The shadow in front of me comes into view, a handsome man, perhaps in his mid twenties. He is well-built, a quiver strapped over his shoulder with a bow in his left hand. I can make out that he has long hair that spills over his shoulders. He leans in closer and heaves me up. 

“Are you alright?” He asks. Dazed, I nod and look at my arms. They’re bruised and bloodied as I had guessed from the thunderous throbbing I felt from head to toe. I guess I must have kissed the darkened earth a little too hard. I get up onto my feet and see that the stranger has started to walk away. “Follow me. If you want to survive.” I do as suggested and see that we’re on a dirt path, curving upwards, on a hill. Here, the stars are like crystals lighting up the forest. The moon lays ahead, very close to the hill where we’re beginning to climb. I see a string of houses with light illuminating through their windows carefully dotting the hillside. 

“Where am I?” I look out to both sides of me and don’t see the lights of the street I fell from, nor did I hear the existence of cars driving by. I examine what I can make out of the draping moonlight, and see that the stranger kept his hair quite long and wore strange clothing. I struggle to keep up with him, limping with pain shooting up and down my leg and back.. The night is still and the only noise that is being echoed is the earth and fallen leaves underneath our footsteps as well as the hard breathing exhuming from myself. He does not answer my question and continues on. 

After what it felt like an eternity of walking, we reached a fairly large hut with a medium sized shed on the outside. It started to lightly drizzle as we had been walking and became soaked. My wounds screamed underneath the icy coldness and from the way my damp clothes clung to my skin. The man turns to me, a slight smirk on his lips while pointing to the woodshed beside the hut. 

“Woman. Sleep in there tonight, if you want to stay alive.” He lets out a soft chuckle before opening his hut and walks in without a second glance at me. I was out of breath and opened my mouth to oppose his instructions. I wanted a warm place to stay, so I followed him into his home. I am met with a loud growl that sends me toppling to the ground. A white tiger sat beside the man, who was sitting in his enormous bed, now shirtless. He laughs heartily and extends a hand to pet the white tiger. “This is why I told you to sleep in the shed, woman. He might think I’ve brought him a snack...” Startled, I began scooting backwards and bumping into something. I turn to look up at what had stopped me, and find myself gazing upward at this new stranger. This one much younger than the man that led me here; but the resemblance between the two were uncanny. They were most likely brothers.

“What is this creature you’ve brought back?” The man bends down and gets close to me, his breath hot against my face. I moved away, surprised by his curiosity and poor knowledge of personal space. 

“This is a woman.” The younger one smiles and reaches a hand out to touch my hair, seemingly intrigued. 

“A woman? Like the ones we’ve heard about in the stories?” 

And this is where I wake up. It was quite an odd dream, but a very interesting one. If I could continue it, that would be great. But the chances of that ever happening is quite slim, as my mind has not been able to produce a good coherent dream in a while.

signed, moon 🌙

** drawing credits go back to original artists.

[halfmoon-ie]

| I once had a dream about a great big library. The shelves reached the heavens, disappearing into ivory clouds. I had seen rosy petals fall upon the ground, as I grazed the aisles. I came upon a tethered salmon-colored book, to which had no title. Somehow I instantly knew it belonged to me. Do you know that feeling, when you see an old friend again after many years? It was exactly like that. I stood in a long line, hugging the book close to my chest. And like all dreams, I suddenly awoke to this reality. I felt amiss all morning and moved about like an empty shell. I just couldn’t help but wonder what the book had to say to me.  But I do know, that somewhere in another time and space, a book that belongs to me, sits awaiting my return.  signed,  moon 🌙