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Poems on the MRT

A Middle-Aged Woman Dissuades a Potential Lover by Leong Liew Geok

 

Three feet away, you lean against your chair;
I tense before the table’s curve,
Your eyes raking:

What’s become of your liking for opulent women?
Look hard at these wrinkles, freckles, flab,
I urge, but love-talk swirls like your cigarette smoke,
Chasing its spiral trail.
I imagine my husband talking
To a younger woman also drinking tea
And wonder about her yes or no.

It’s not that there’s too much to lose
And I’m too young for you.
The feelings I’ve dissected
Would swim and sink in yours.
In truth the spread of middle age,
Jealous of children, spouse, money, work,
Faith, hope and charity,
Fends off more than the love
That time won’t bend for.

An affair ends with ashes,
As buds and leaves burn dry;
A man returns to his wife,
A woman gives up the lie.

My tender apologies;
You are a friend.
For what I lack,
Please don’t be sad.
Perhaps we’ll meet
In another life
Not half as bad,
When I’ll be a man,
And you, a wife.

Published in Love is Not Enough (1991)

Leong Liew Geok received her primary and secondary education in Penang, Malaysia, and attended universities in Australia, England and the United States. She taught in the Department of English Language and Literature, NUS, from 1981 - 2002. She has authored two collections of poetry, Love is Not Enough and Women without Men. She has also edited, among other publications, More than Half the Sky: Creative Writings by Thirty Singaporean Women. Her poetry has been anthologised in various publications. She is finalising poems for her third collection, which is set to be published in 2025.

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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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