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Moving People With Words

Poems on the MRT

Forehead by Cheryl Julia Lee

 

My forehead is so wide
you could serve breakfast
on it and still have space
for dessert.

When I was young, I hated
it. Kids in school would tease
me about the amount
of space above my eyebrows,
tell me I was balding,
call me a walking solar plate.

One day I went home crying
and when I told my father why,
he laughed and took me in his arms,
saying, "Princess, your forehead is wide
so I can fit all my kisses on it, enough
to last you all day until you come back
home to me and I can fill it up again.

Your forehead is wide
so that when you're having a fever,
my huge hand will always cover it just fine.
This space above your eyebrows
is the vastness of the night sky.
It tells you what you can imagine is greater

than what you can see, hear, taste, and touch,
and it is wide so there is enough space
in your head to hold all the dreams
your hands are still too small to carry.

Your forehead, my Princess, is wide like mine.
It is my present to you and only you; no one
else in the family has it. You have my brains,
you have my smarts; now go find your own heart."

After that, I wore this forehead proudly
as a soldier does his medal. I pinned my hair
all the way back so everyone could see it.
When they laughed, I held back my own smile.

But lately, I have been cutting bangs.

Published in We Were Always Eating Expired Things (2014)

Cheryl Julia Lee is an Assistant Professor with the English department at NTU. Her debut poetry collection, We Were Always Eating Expired Things, was published in 2014, and was nominated for the Singapore Literature Prize.

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Poems on the MRT is an initiative by the National Arts Council, in partnership with SMRT and Stellar Ace. Produced by Sing Lit Station, a local literary non-profit organisation, this collaboration displays excerpts of Singapore poetry throughout SMRT’s train network, integrating local literature into the daily experience of commuters. Look out for poems in English, Chinese, Malay, and Tamil in trains on the East-West, North-South and Circle Lines, as well as videos created by local artists and featuring local poets in stations and on trains. The Chinese, Malay, and Tamil poems are available in both the original languages and English. To enjoy the full poems, commuters may read them on go.gov.sg/potm.

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