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My Ink Bleeds

Musings by Lyia Meta


Restless Days
It isn’t the fall that breaks us. It’s standing too long on ground that never settles. When the days keep shifting, when nothing holds still long enough to breathe, hope doesn’t leave in a storm... it slips away quietly, tired of waiting for a safe place to land. Faith isn’t lost because life is hard. It fades when rest is postponed, when even sleep listens for trouble, and tomorrow never quite arrives. All anyone asks, really, is a moment where the body believes it can stop

Lyia Meta - My Ink Bleeds
4 days ago1 min read


Never Trouble Trouble
Never trouble trouble until trouble troubles you. Worry is like that: it arrives uninvited, then asks you to set the table, then brings friends. One thought leans into the next. A maybe becomes a what if. A what if becomes a storm rehearsed a hundred times before a single drop has fallen. Worry begets worry. It multiplies in the quiet, borrows tomorrow’s fears, and charges interest on things that never happen. Yet most trouble passes by unnoticed when we don’t call it by nam

Lyia Meta - My Ink Bleeds
Jan 101 min read


2025: Putting One Foot in Front of the Other
2025 has been one of the most trying years of my life. I still struggle to fully articulate it, the uncertainty, the awakenings, the divides, the quiet but constant need for support. More than anything, though, it has been a year that demanded understanding. Not only from those closest to me, but from myself, as the curtain slowly lifted and I learned to set aside my rose-tinted glasses, even if I still reach for them now and then to recalibrate. The curveballs came relentles

Lyia Meta - My Ink Bleeds
Dec 30, 20251 min read


WHEN SELF FADES
I woke up today and gazed into the mirror and the face that stared back wasn’t mine. Wasn’t she the one I once knew, the one who laughed, who danced, who remembered herself? Who is this woman living where I used to be? © 2023-2025 Lyia Meta. All rights reserved.

Lyia Meta - My Ink Bleeds
Dec 27, 20251 min read


A String of Pearls
Imagine this. Each day strung along a bead… like an infinite string of pearls, each one catching the light for a moment before slipping into shadow. We move along the string, thinking it endless, thinking we have forever to notice its weight, to see what makes each day its own. But how much time do we really have? Not the hours on a clock, not the minutes we measure with lists—but the moments that stay with us, that settle quietly inside and shape the next day. Even as the cl

Lyia Meta - My Ink Bleeds
Dec 27, 20252 min read


The Day Before Christmas
The day before Christmas feels magical. Not loud. Not demanding. Something suspended in the air. As though I am standing at the edge of something infinitely good. Peace. Hope. A quiet gathering of all that is gentle in the world, held together for a moment longer than usual. This day makes me hopeful. And it carries a deep sadness too, because this day will pass. A quiet reminder that nothing lasts, or all. I remember those no longer with us and those who were here long befor

Lyia Meta - My Ink Bleeds
Dec 23, 20252 min read


THE TWO ROOMS
She woke again at 3:17 a.m.—the hour the house held still. Outside, the late-night humidity pressed against the windows, softening the streetlights along her taman . A dog barked once, then silence returned. Above her, the ceiling fan whirred unevenly. The squeak had grown louder these past weeks. She needed to get it fixed. She reminded herself to call the electrician. The room was dim, warm, familiar. Then her awareness shifted—quietly, without drama. The edges of her bedro

Lyia Meta - My Ink Bleeds
Dec 18, 20252 min read


Mindless Soul of a Mind Gone Mad
Days… Or is it minutes, seconds — it’s hard to tell anymore. The colours around you start to fade, not gone, just muted, like someone turned the world down a notch without asking. And somewhere between the quiet and the confusion, you feel yourself slipping into a place you didn’t plan to go. There are moments like this, when the mind starts wandering off on its own path. It picks up old worries, old memories, old shadows — anything it can grab. It runs wild, not because you’

Lyia Meta - My Ink Bleeds
Dec 10, 20251 min read


Tap, Tap, Tap
I write. Songs. Lyrics. Stories. Often ending with me chasing melodies. Melodies that don’t come. That are just out of reach. Tap. Tap. Tap. I tap the tip of my pen against the edge of my notebook, the edges frayed. A word arrives, but just as quickly, it skirts out of reach. I chase it with a line. I chase it with a melody I cannot hum— not yet . It’s a dance. Sometimes a foxtrot, sometimes a waltz, but most times it’s… messy, unpredictable, stubborn. Somewhere, a computer

Lyia Meta - My Ink Bleeds
Dec 6, 20252 min read


The Cost of Peace
I didn’t know better, so I tore myself down just to keep the peace. And in not knowing better, I wore every mask they handed me until none of them fit. ©️Lyia Meta

Lyia Meta - My Ink Bleeds
Dec 4, 20251 min read


I Walk
I walk through corridors. Each step deliberate. Each breath hears my own footsteps. I walk through corridors to witness what came before me, to understand what I see, to brace myself for what tomorrow brings. These corridors hold my secrets, my thoughts, my quiet moments. They speak without words, pointing to what is hidden, and remind me, in their own way, when my time will come. I walk. I walk because these corridors are all I see. I breathe. I understand. I wonder

Lyia Meta - My Ink Bleeds
Dec 2, 20251 min read


Tell Me?
Why should I? Isn't there a place that all these, All these memories go? Why should I forget, When all I ever see are the wheels that turn? The past, the present, intertwined, The rights, the wrong, the words I hear. Why should I, when all you ever do Is kill the very heart of who I am, So that you can live comfortably as the benevolent? Why would I forgive? Why would I give, When all you do is take? When should I, When I am everything, And you are... You are... Tell me, who

Lyia Meta - My Ink Bleeds
Nov 26, 20251 min read


The Memoir of a Star
I remember the hush before I existed—the trembling dust, the cold and endless dark. I was nothing, yet everything that would ever be stirred within me. Pressure pressed me together, invisible hands molding me, shaping me into possibility. I quivered, I shivered, I resisted—and then I surrendered. That surrender became my ignition. I was fire before I knew my own name. Light surged from me, stretching into the void, claiming the darkness not as dominion, but as declaration: I

Lyia Meta - My Ink Bleeds
Nov 25, 20252 min read


What Small Rituals Teach Us
For years, I thought the meaning of life revealed itself in big, cinematic moments: graduations, weddings, career leaps. But the older I get, the more I realize life happens in the quiet in-betweens—the morning cup of tea, a walk without your phone, the familiar way you smooth the sheets before bed. Rituals don’t arrive with fireworks. They come as ordinary acts, repeated so often we hardly notice—until we realize they’ve been holding us steady all along. Here are seven lesso

Lyia Meta - My Ink Bleeds
Nov 18, 20253 min read


Where the Garden Dreams— Lyrical fiction series
There are places where the world grows thin—where sound, scent, and shadow blur into something almost remembered. In one such place, by the edge of a quiet garden and a patient lake, a being tends the threshold between dreams and waking. Where the Garden Dreams is a glimpse into that fragile in-between, where beauty breathes, time bends, and belief is all that keeps the unseen alive. In the hush between the rustle of leaves and the hum of dusk, it stirs— a being not of ou

Lyia Meta - My Ink Bleeds
Nov 12, 20252 min read


THE POOL OF LIFE— (Lyrical prose series)
Like a shimmer, a fleeting breath of light — beyond the mountains that stretch as far as the eye can see. There lies a stillness, a whisper between realms. I glimpse it faintly — a ripple upon the veil of time. I breathe what has never been breathed, walk the path carved by shadows and memory. This body, this vessel, moves toward something eternal. And as the horizon bends, a figure appears. He raises his eyes slowly, and the world tilts — the air thick with the weight of for

Lyia Meta - My Ink Bleeds
Nov 7, 20252 min read


We Are Young But Once: Short Stories from My Grandmother’s Pillow Series
In a small kampung nestled at the foot of the mountains, life moved at a pace so slow that even time seemed to have trouble catching up. The kampung was a patchwork of bamboo huts, narrow dirt roads, and swaying coconut trees that whispered in the wind. The days were long and peaceful, filled with the hum of farming work, the chatter of elders, and the simple joys of community life. But for Ari, the youngest son of the village’s oldest family, this tranquil existence felt m

Lyia Meta - My Ink Bleeds
Nov 5, 20253 min read


The Mango Tree: Taking What Isn't Yours to TakeShort Stories from My Grandmother’s Pillow Series
No one really knew her full name. To the children chasing chickens in the lane, to the women whispering under rattan fans, and to the young men zooming past on their kapchais , she was simply Nyah Bibi . Her house stood at the far end of Lorong Bunga Raya , a traditional wooden structure with shuttered windows and a red-tiled roof, faded with time but dignified in its quiet way. Paper lanterns hung limp in the heat. The air always seemed thick with the scent of belimbing

Lyia Meta - My Ink Bleeds
Oct 29, 20254 min read


The Devil Within: Short Stories from My Grandmother’s Pillow Series
“ Not all prisons have bars. Some are built from silence and expectations .” Evangeline Teo was the picture of grace—elegant cheongsam always pressed, her hair in a neat twist, pearls around her neck like punctuation marks. Wife of Dato ’ Reyes Teo, a prominent banker whose face appeared often in The Star , she lived in a house tucked behind iron gates in Damansara Heights. The kind of house with silent maids, mango trees trimmed just so, and a prayer altar that smelled fain

Lyia Meta - My Ink Bleeds
Oct 20, 20253 min read


When the Wound Never Heals: Grief, Violence, and the Need for Understanding
The recent news about the young girl who was stabbed—over 200 times —hit me harder than I expected. It wasn’t just another tragedy on the evening news. It was personal. My brother was stabbed over 180 times by someone who was having an episode. That kind of loss doesn’t just fade—it reshapes you. In the years since, I’ve tried to make sense of it through my art. I released an album with songs that attempt to capture that pain—the confusion, the silence that follows, and the

Lyia Meta - My Ink Bleeds
Oct 17, 20253 min read


Where Silence Speaks
There are moments the world forgets to turn, and time holds its breath between heartbeats. We walk, uncertain, through echoes of ourselves— seeking meaning in mirrors and in dust. It’s not the thunder that shapes us, but the stillness after it fades. For in that hush, we meet our truest voice— a whisper born of loss, of hope, of grace. And we understand at last: we were never chasing light. We were learning how to see in the dark. ©️ Lyia Meta RAINY DAY by JULYO feat. LYIA ME

Lyia Meta - My Ink Bleeds
Oct 15, 20251 min read


SUNDERED—a chapter of Sundered and Reforged
The glass shattered before she even knew she had dropped it. Not just the glass — the moment, the day, the illusion she’d been carrying...

Lyia Meta - My Ink Bleeds
Oct 3, 20252 min read


FLAWED GENIUS
Foreword / Prelude This is not about one person, or one story. It is not written with blame or bitterness. Rather, it is an observation...

Lyia Meta - My Ink Bleeds
Sep 26, 20252 min read


Hand-Me-Downs and Broken Dreams
My childhood wore hand-me-down shoes, gladiator sandals bought too big, slipping loose with every mile. Still, the journeys were my...

Lyia Meta - My Ink Bleeds
Sep 18, 20252 min read


Where Borders Breathe- Micro-stories
Foreword by Lyia Meta The first time I watched Horton Hears a Who! —the 2008 CGI animated film from Blue Sky Studios, distributed by 20th...

Lyia Meta - My Ink Bleeds
Sep 12, 20254 min read


I TRUST (Poem)
Trust is such a fragile thing. We speak of it easily, but living it is far harder. Trust requires surrender. It asks us to believe in...

Lyia Meta - My Ink Bleeds
Sep 3, 20252 min read


Wired in Color—lyrical microfiction series
I do not hear the world as you do. Its voices bloom in shades, each word a brushstroke on the canvas of my mind. Crimson folds around...

Lyia Meta - My Ink Bleeds
Aug 28, 20252 min read


The Quiet Season(Micro-stories)
Foreword by Lyia Meta It’s no secret that I’ve always been a sucker for period dramas and timeless classics. One story that has stayed...

Lyia Meta - My Ink Bleeds
Aug 22, 20252 min read


Beneath Eternity’s Gaze-Micro-stories.
Forward I haven’t done much reading lately—music takes up most of my time now. But many years ago, I was constantly buried in books. The...

Lyia Meta - My Ink Bleeds
Aug 18, 20253 min read


The Sound After Breaking: Sundered and Reforged
Sundered and Reforged: What It Means to me. by Lyia Meta We don’t always break with sound. Sometimes the fracture is silent — a slow...

Lyia Meta - My Ink Bleeds
Aug 10, 20252 min read


The One Who Stood Taller- Lyrical Microfiction (part of the lines that carry series)
She didn’t ask for height. She earned it. Born under a sky of shoulds and shadows, she grew beneath Jupiter— beneath the knuckle of...

Lyia Meta - My Ink Bleeds
Aug 6, 20252 min read


He Looked Right Through Me: Lyrical Microfiction — (Monologue from the Perspective of a Disturbed Mind)
He called me by my name. No one ever does that. They pretend. They walk around me like I’m furniture with eyes. But he didn’t. He looked...

Lyia Meta - My Ink Bleeds
Jul 29, 20252 min read


DOWN - Lyrical Microfiction (part of the lines that carry series)
"Some lines don’t rise. They pull." - Lyia Meta The line bent, not up but down— a soft slope into ruin. It didn’t ask. It took. First, a...

Lyia Meta - My Ink Bleeds
Jul 23, 20251 min read


WHAT THE DAY NEVER KNEW- when one half of the world forgets the other
𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙙𝙖𝙮 𝙘𝙖𝙧𝙧𝙞𝙚𝙙 𝙙𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙢𝙨 𝙤𝙣 𝙞𝙩𝙨 𝙨𝙝𝙤𝙪𝙡𝙙𝙚𝙧𝙨. 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙣𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩 𝙘𝙧𝙖𝙙𝙡𝙚𝙙 𝙨𝙚𝙘𝙧𝙚𝙩𝙨 𝙞𝙣 𝙞𝙩𝙨...

Lyia Meta - My Ink Bleeds
Jul 16, 20251 min read


He Was What Came After- Micro-stories
Foreword Some people move through the world carrying more than what’s visible. You can feel it when you're with them. Like something...

Lyia Meta - My Ink Bleeds
Jul 13, 20252 min read


The Silver Thread (Micro-stories)
Foreword As a child, I was completely captivated by the legends of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. I spent countless...

Lyia Meta - My Ink Bleeds
Jun 27, 20253 min read


What She Carried(Micro-stories)
Foreword by Lyia Meta When I was younger, Greek myths filled the quiet spaces in my mind. I didn’t just read them—I carried them. I...

Lyia Meta - My Ink Bleeds
Jun 23, 20253 min read


THE NUMBER (Micro-stories)
FOREWORD Memory, Fragility, and the Books That Stayed With Me I didn’t start with The Diary of Anne Frank. My first introduction to the...

Lyia Meta - My Ink Bleeds
Jun 17, 20253 min read


Just a Footnote.(Micro-stories)
Foreword by Lyia Meta There are songs that don’t just play—they echo. They follow you through time, quietly altering the way you see...

Lyia Meta - My Ink Bleeds
Jun 11, 20253 min read


THE LAST OATH (Micro-stories)
Foreword by Lyia Meta Many years ago, I became utterly absorbed in the story of Jeanne d’Arc, better known to many as Joan of Arc.¹ Her...

Lyia Meta - My Ink Bleeds
Jun 7, 20253 min read


Reconnaissance (Microfiction)
Foreword by Lyia Meta Some time ago, I came across a film that left a lasting impression—Burnt Offerings, starring Karen Black. It wasn’t...

Lyia Meta - My Ink Bleeds
Jun 4, 20252 min read


COLORS OF THE QUIET (Micro-stories)
Foreword When I was a little girl, you would often find me drawing elaborate pieces of ‘art’ in the sand, on the school blackboard when...

Lyia Meta - My Ink Bleeds
May 30, 20252 min read


The Price of Dreams… and the Things We Tuck into Our Bucket Lists
The Death of Socrates by Jacques-Louis David Some dreams come with a price tag. And I don’t mean the kind you can swipe a card for. I’ve...

Lyia Meta - My Ink Bleeds
May 22, 20252 min read


IN THE SILVER LINING
In skies of ash where shadows play, Hope often hides, but then finds a way. Softly, a glint so slight, I may Break through the gloom with...

Lyia Meta - My Ink Bleeds
Apr 10, 20251 min read


Reflections on a Changing Year: Adapting, Evolving, and Moving Forward
As the year draws to a close, I find myself reflecting on how much has changed—not only in the world around me but within my own life and...

Lyia Meta - My Ink Bleeds
Dec 31, 20245 min read


INDEFATIGABLE
There once was a girl, so strong, For whom "tired" was never in her song. Indefatigable, true, With a million things to pursue, She’d...

Lyia Meta - My Ink Bleeds
Oct 30, 20241 min read


I AM EVERYTHING I SET OUT TO BE
Dreams and trials entwined Each day turns hope to true light— I am all I seek. I am everything I set out to be. ©Lyia Meta All rights...

Lyia Meta - My Ink Bleeds
Sep 12, 20241 min read


GIRL
In the quiet of the afternoon light, A tuxedo cat sits, black and white. With fur so sleek, like evening’s attire, She prances and...

Lyia Meta - My Ink Bleeds
Aug 16, 20242 min read


The Weight of Interconnection: Navigating a World Saturated with Negativity
There are days when you just want to shut out the world, to retreat into a space where expectations don’t exist, and you can simply...

Lyia Meta - My Ink Bleeds
Aug 7, 20244 min read


COME DANCE WITH ME
I dance, I dance I dance to feel my soul take flight, I dance with all my heart, igniting the night. I dance, I dance, I dance! In every...

Lyia Meta - My Ink Bleeds
Jul 22, 20241 min read
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