Respond to 2025: Graduation

Graduation

Tonight you’re wearing purple

the colour of suffragettes

holding up half the world

did you realise that?

have you heard of microchimerism:

fetal cells crossing the placenta

and entering the mother’s bloodstream

—your unique DNA is in me

just as much as my love for words

has osmotically travelled to you

this two-sided journey a mutual

sharing of heart and brain

oh the awards you’ve won this night

my newly-minted official adult

I still remember when you curled tight:

an ammonite below my breast

and now your friends flutter around you

the colours of boiled lollies

a loveliness of ladybugs

preening and poised for flight.

Thuy On is an arts journalist, critic, editor and poet. She has three collections of poetry published by UWAP: Turbulence (2020), Decadence (2022) and Essence (2025). She is currently working on her fourth book, and yes, its title will rhyme with the previous ones!