and yet here we are, still leaving
if this was never wrought then it doesn't need to break
minds change; hearts scar over, and
love seeks erasure of debt to time
Read MoreA poem begins not when the line
breaks but where the skull scatters.
Tea pot petals in the kitchen. Ai Weiwei
smashing an urn. Ah ma left
to pick herself up in the Bay Area streets.
Fragments do not pick themselves up. They are
swept away.
All Yale-NUS classes are held on campus, a vertical descent and a few minutes’ walk away from our rooms. As you might imagine, that makes waiting for elevators near the turn of the hour a nail-biting experience. Will I make it in time if both the lifts are on the 20th floor and my class with the strict professor starts in five minutes?
Read MoreA pair of padukas, gading-white, as ancient as Iskandar;
A cogan alam, crested by a rearing harimau, maw open;
A cogan agama, tipped by a sabit bulan and a pentagram;
Thirteen payung kuning, saffron sutera, brocaded with noble gold;
A single keris, meteoric iron, a pusaka old as kayangan itself.