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Poems on the MRT

All the Sounds of Mynahs by Tse Hao Guang

 

Final crow proclaims its insolence alone,
is shot. Little boy, lost, decides to browse
unmarked back shelves of Sheng Siong,
finds a little nest. Mimosa grows and grows
vulnerable to breath. Who will talk to it?

Looking for cockatoo-sitter while family
plus maid visits Australia. Will pay cash.
Cannot draw a quartered tomato, biology
tutor needed. The swimming pool is fresh
or salt water also don't know—taste a bit.

Chickens come from FairPrice, bulldogs
from The Pet Safari, goldfish from Underwater
World. When too-early morning sun drags
me out of bed, the koel calls; I wonder
what new crime it's telling me to commit.

At night, all the trees in town come alive
with all the sounds of mynahs. Each tried
their best to preach to me. They believe
enlightenment has come. Put your tired
shopping down and squat, or lie, or sit.

Originally published in Deeds of Light (2015), republished in Unfree Verse (2017)

Credit: Daryl Qilin Yam

Tse Hao Guang (謝皓光) is author of The International Left-Hand Calligraphy Association (Tinfish Press, 2023) and Deeds of Light (Math Paper Press, 2015). He edited the new edition of Windham-Campbell prize-winning poet Wong May’s 1969 debut, A Bad Girl’s Book of Animals (Ethos Books, 2023), and runs Paper Jam, a literary pamphlet imprint. He is a 2016 fellow of the University of Iowa’s International Writing Program, the 2018 National Writer-in-Residence at Nanyang Technological University, and a 2023 virtual resident of the National Centre for Writing at Norwich. His poems and essays appear in Poetry, Poem-a-Day, The Yale Review, Brick, and elsewhere.

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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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