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Poems on the MRT

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Deliverance by Grace Chia

 

What I would give
to give you, child,
this broken pearl I call earth
this womb lacerated by
a thousand wounds, a hundred swords,
a dozen thoughts tainted by the daily wars
of half-wits;

this blackened crystal of crust
made milk by a soft cry of your unborn voice: Mama!
Child, with this one word, you
salvage this broken mass, give it meaning,
bring down arms, make it whole again;
and I remember once more why it is
that you are the one
who deliver me

Published in Cordelia (2012)

Grace Chia is the author of several books, including womango, The Cuckoo Conundrum, and Cordelia (2012), which was shortlisted for the Singapore Literature Prize 2014 for poetry. Her most recent novel is White Cloud Mountain (2021). Her writing is widely anthologised, including in Anthology of English Writing in Southeast Asia, Singapore Literature in English, Mining for Meaning, Fish Eats Lion, A Luxury We Cannot Afford, From Walden To Woodlands, HOW2 (US), Blue Lyra Review (US), Stylus Poetry Journal (Australia) and translated for die horen (Germany), La Traductiere (France) and Knijzevne Novine (Serbia). She is the editor of the prose anthology We R Family, and Junoesq Literary Journal, which she founded. The inaugural NAC-NTU Writer-in-Residence for 2011-2012, she has taught creative writing at Nanyang Technological University and DigiPen Singapore Institute of Technology.

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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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