Crocodiles
graze on the entrails of afternoons.
Wearing his dentures
Grandpa would walk down the street to the shops.
In those places now
they sell crocodiles in tents.
Suddenly the wind might blow.
The tents hold on to their sides,
cheerful enough,
though eaten by crocodile.
If Grandpa were still here,
he’d be selling balloons like crocodiles.
You ask: where can we buy crocodiles?
Saturday afternoon lies with its mouth wide open
a wallet hurriedly stuffed with money.
A mouth opens like a city
a fluid-filled sac or saclike cavity
a purse
Saturday midnight.
Sithuraj Ponraj lives and works in Singapore. He writes in English, Tamil and Spanish. He was awarded the Singapore Literature Prize (SLP) for Tamil prose fiction and Merit Prize for Tamil poetry in 2016. Sithuraj has written 2 novels, 3 short story collections, a collection of literary essays, 3 poetry collections and 2 YA books in Tamil from 2016-2020. He has currently completed his first English collection ('Keynesian Crocodiles') and untitled short story collection in English. Both will appear in late 2020. His novel 'The Wooden Elephant' and poetry collection "It is Easy to be an Italian" have both been shortlisted for the 2020 Singapore Literature Prize in the Tamil prose and Tamil poetry categories respectively.
Ruth Tang (they/them) is a playwright and poet, raised in Singapore and based in New York City.
