‘Tanglin Halt’s tenants […] will need to move out of their hawker stalls and shops in seven years.’
– TODAY, 4 July 2014
Enough time, they said, for a reckoning,
to scrape the grounds from the bottoms of our cups
and sweep the stacked cups from their tables
as at the end of a night’s reminiscing,
to turn the tables over to the birds
already sentry among our half-filled seats
for what’s left from the helpings uneaten
and chess-games unfinished, tall tales unheard,
to draw the shutters over the LED signs
beaming comfort from their hack-wired frames,
throw out the flattened sticks of sugar-cane
strung with the last of our raffia twine,
strip out the lights – that for now, still smoulder
with a ghostly joy though the current’s off,
charged as on our first day, with the thrill
of something built, and something brighter.
_____________
Theophilus Kwek has published four collections of poetry, two of which were shortlisted for the Singapore Literature Prize. His poems, essays and translations have appeared in The Guardian, Times Literary Supplement, The London Magazine, and Mekong Review, among other publications. He serves as Poetry Editor of the Asian Books Blog, and his most recent collection, Moving House, is published by Carcanet Press in the UK.
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