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Poems on the MRT

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Visitor by Jerrold Yam

 

Each morning the neighbour fastens his tie
before driving off, and from your bed
you see gates swinging in step
like that pendant of yours, now culled
from vantage and invisible
in its hollow, mahogany drawer. Light
gathers at the window’s edge, too early
for letting itself in, and the news
arrives by phone, circling like crows, always
a nuisance, news freshly perched
in twin sanctums of your ears, your
eyes trespassing on the neighbour’s yard.
The father of your children is dead, it says,
some ten minutes ago, when curtains still guard
and you have not risen. A wind
ripples through trees, maybe it is finding its way
among distractions, a voice you hear but
cannot see. By the fence, dew on eager leaves
ripening as it disappears, a trade
made necessary by those too long in love, or what
makes love vulnerable, this neck of skin, this
aching after hiding places—your pendant
unclasped, pushed away, or let
go, heard not seen.

Published in Chasing Curtained Suns (2012)

Jerrold Yam is a corporate lawyer based in London. He is the author of three poetry collections: Intruder (Ethos Books), Scattered Vertebrae (Math Paper Press) and Chasing Curtained Suns (Math Paper Press). His poems have appeared in Magma, Oxford Poetry, Prairie Schooner, The London Magazine, The Straits Times and Washington Square Review. Named by the National Arts Council as one of the "New Voices of Singapore 2014", he was recently shortlisted in The London Magazine Poetry Prize 2024, and is a 2024 Writer-in-Residence at the UK’s National Centre for Writing. Find him on Instagram @jerroldyam.

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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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