"The Way of Karma" in Scientific American
An excerpt from “The Way of Karma” by Monica Ong.
For the November issue of Scientific American, I’m delighted to share a new poem “The Way of Karma” in Meter, the poetry column edited by Dava Sobel. This visual poem is based on a map of the milky way and an archival photo of one of my aunts in her youth. In this poem, I challenge the narratives of conquest by writing back to the constellations on the map from a woman’s perspective. For example, Orion, is known as the “hunter” to which I write: Hunters / will one day kneel / to the ghosts of their deeds. I am imagining the sky as a place where women are no longer chased for conquest, just like I’d like to imagine going into a public space without being chased out by male aggression.