2.32pm, a moment ripe
in Singapore. Not America, not
Laos, where time pulls
dissonant. In India, more so,
it keels over.
The abyss clings onto Africa, as it did Asia.
All I have seen—
Sorry—
I mean, all that was seen by the news
agency
congregate in the spirits’ constant wailing
in that apartment building
where those buried under wander.
And finally, a dangling pronoun:
A deaf crow delighted after defecation—
The building is finally dirty.
Ayilisha Manthira, 25, who writes under the pen name Chumki, won the National Arts Council Golden Point Award’s second prize for Tamil poetry in 2019. She is also an executive committee member of the National Library Board Young Writers’ Circle for Tamil youths. A multilingual from young, she finds delight in toggling between tongues - learning, unlearning, and repeat.
Teo Xiao Ting is a writer and editor based in Singapore. She won the first prize for the Golden Point Award (English Poetry) in 2017, and was an artist-fellow in Virginia Center for the Creative Arts from August to October 2018. Her works can be found in Quarterly Literary Review Singapore and Denver Quarterly.
