Illustration by Arty Guava
““According to Chekhov,” Tamaru said, rising from his chair, “once a gun appears in a story, it has to be fired.””
– Haruki Murakami
Some will stutter, sorry and strange,
Some will smile, weird and wicked.
A gun’s greeting will chill me, sting me,
Vying to be the one I’ll fire.
But if Chekhov were right about stories,
Whether or not I choose you today,
Someday, some page, you will all be fired;
Crossfired, backfired, friendly fired, ceasefired.
Perhaps, as the protagonist, I’m destined for ambivalence
But perhaps, as the author, I’m destined to realize that:
It isn’t the gun that fires once it appears in our story,
But the story that appears once we fire the gun.
Sophie Luo is a student and emerging writer from Vancouver currently studying Biomedical Sciences at McGill University. From anatomy to poetry, her strange combination of passions yields an indecisive personality, a penchant for rumination, and a disproportionate fascination in ordinary things – all of which she records and expresses in writing.
Lay Hoon aka Arty Guava is an Illustrator and Graphic Designer based in Vancouver. She grew up in Malaysia and spent most of her adult life in Singapore before moving to Canada. She has a Bachelor’s Degree in Bioengineering but chose to make a career switch after about 1 year of working in the field. Art and Design have always been her calling. She is passionate about culture, people and nature and how these themes interact with each other.