“God is a little girl with mud on her hands. She crafts the soft skull of an infant from the earth, cradles it into a face, thumbs settling into eye sockets, an index finger smoothing the angles of a triangle nose. A stick descends from the heavens to carve a mouth, to pierce nostrils and pupils. The mud baby is born, the size of two fists. It lies limp in the girl’s hands, the red clay staining her skin. Creation is messy. The girl wipes the mess away on her dress, but the red remains.”
Enjoy this audio recording of “Niwawa (Clay Baby)” by Suqi Karen Sims from Vol. 35:2 of CALYX Journal! Buy your copy here!
Suqi Karen Sims was born and raised in Taichung, Taiwan. Her work has been published or is forthcoming in Water~Stone Review, The Pinch, The Greensboro Review, and elsewhere. She completed her PhD in English with a concentration in creative writing at Georgia State University and lives in Atlanta.
Sims also recommends: “For a folksier version of the 泥娃娃 Niwawa song, I recommend Taiwanese treasure Teresa Tseng’s cover from her 1968 album 第七集 (Di Qi Ji). This was released when she was about 15, before she studied in Japan and became an international superstar.” YouTube link.