ON AND OFF AGAIN
KIA LABEIJA
“Yes, I’m in the geish.” Reflections, in self-portraits and writing, on sacred healing spaces and the upstaging of glamor by daily routine.
Kia, are you taking your pills?
Sometimes.
Sometimes,
when I feel a breeze go by.
And then one day turns into two days and two days turns into
a week and a week turns into a month and then it’s two months.
I’ve developed a knot so tight
it feels as if it may never unravel.
Woven within this knot are flashes:
So I decided to strip the glam off.
Yes, I’m in the *geish*—
Putting on, pulling back,
seeing into the second page.
“On and Off Again” by Kia LaBeija was originally published on July 26, 2018, in Risk Pool the twenty-fourth issue of Triple Canopy. All images by Kia LaBeija, courtesy of the artist.
LABEIJA