Shakira Andrea Sison is a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine from the U.P. in Los Banos. She was a Fellow for Poetry at the 35th U.P. National Writer's Workshop in Davao City (1999) and is the Co-Founder of the U.P. Sappho Society. 

On her favorite authors and the influences on her writing style, Kia candidly answers: 

     "I'm not familiar with other writers so I really  can't name any.  Aside from medical literature and feminist theory, my reading is quite limited.  

     "I started writing as a child with no encouragement nor formal training at all.  For me writing was a gift I was born with and I never had any need for outside influence.  On many occasions, interaction with other writers and their works has proven to be detrimental to my writing. 

     "At the workshop, when the panelists kept asking me who I read, I couldn’t give them any names or even recognize the authors that they mentioned. "That’s impossible.” Dr. De Ungria said, “Who taught you your line breaks? How did you learn to ‘trim’ your works?”, to which I shrugged, “All this time it’s just been me, I guess. I’ve gotten by, haven’t I? The end justifies the means.” 
 

Calamine was an old concoction 
for the nagging itches 
which kept us unstill. 

We dabbed the starchy fluid 
on the bites of past unions. 
You squirmed, 
chasing rashes shaped like faces, 
picking scabs like bits of dust. 

I had to tie you up 
to conceal the scratches on your skin, 
and you stopped moving. 

In silence there is healing 
but not absence of sin. 
  

Between Fingers 

There is no name  
for the spaces fluids fill, 
smoke stains, 
and the smell of friction remains. 

We call them by the scars left 
by rings and hands 
invisible bands 
whose emptiness demands 
a little more than pain. 

(You sat on these cracks and told me 
what I can't reach can't be bought.) 

Only between fingers 
can we really feel 
what other numbed surfaces cannot. 
 

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