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Poems on the MRT

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Afterword by Lee Jing Jing

 

The words snake out of my mouth before I can stop them.
Braiding the ends of sentences,

keeping them tied up with a velvet ribbon,
or left loose

to unfurl slowly in the hours after.
Hear the difference between

Shut up, and
Shut up, lah.

The last word hiding in it the curve of a smile,
making a blow land light as a kiss.

Published in And Other RIvers (2015)

Credit: Aline Bouma (2018)

Jing-Jing Lee is the critically acclaimed author of HOW WE DISAPPEARED, which was reviewed in newspapers such as the Financial Times, SCMP, and The New York Times. It was long-listed for the Women’s Prize for Fiction and the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction and included in The Big Jubilee Read in the UK, which featured ten books from each decade of the Queen’s reign. HOW WE DISAPPEARED is Jing's first novel; she is working on her second while living with her husband and son in Amsterdam.

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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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