shigo no sekai

by maw shein win

what happened was this: i was a rice farmer and struggled to feed my wife and three children. we were too poor to afford meat, but we ate yellow cabbage, kale and, of course, rice. one day as i was watering the fields with my eldest son, i knelt down and saw the body of a child, no older than three years. i felt as if my heart had cracked.

i had turned thirty-three that morning.

the child wore blue knickers and a blue shirt. his face was as pale as rice powder and his eyes were open bright to the sky. how did this child come to pass? i took it upon myself to find out.

so i followed invisible footprints towards the valley of shigo no sekai, the world after death. it is where i remain to this day.

(Originally published in Hyphen, Issue 5)