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Moving People With Words

Poems on the MRT

The horizon bends by Izyanti Asa'ari

 

You tickle the water with your toes,
urging the tide in
with a lightness

that thins the breeze. It whispers through
fingers, both yours and mine,
gentle and faint,

so when the horizon squints, I laugh lightly,
lightly, I borrow your laughter,
to say nothing.

These are the soft tidal waves, grass growing overlong.
Forgive me, I slide past your words at times,
you tell me too much.

I caress your hair in the day, and in the evening
my hand hovers to catch the damp.
Between the winds,

You are quiet.
Nyai penat?¹ I ask.
Yes, you say, yes.
Nyai nak minum air?²
Nyai nak tengok TV?³
Nyai dah cukup makan?⁴

Over and over, I hover,
the waves drawing in,
back and forth.

¹ Grandmother, are you tired?
² Grandmother, are you thirsty?
³ How about TV?
⁴ Will you eat a bit more?


Published in New Singapore Poetries (2022)

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Izyanti Asa’ari is a writer and co-founder of Fellow Design. Her works have appeared in anthologies This is Not a Safety Barrier (Ethos Books, 2016), to let the light in (SingLit Station, 2021), New Singapore Poetries (Gaudy Books, 2022), The Opening Act (Layl Ash-Shayr, 2024) and others. She is interested in studying the gestures the body makes against its own will, including that of cities.

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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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