Samuel Lee (b. 1992)
SELECTED POEMS
First World Grocery Shopping
hail the marys of toa payoh
especially you miss chia with the
fruit and the expired safra membership
wear your black wig whisper good morning
into the diseased ears of your neighbour’s dog
the day is turning stale your plastic bag
of lemons blinking in your hands sweating their dew
into dark shapes announcing through their
waxen skin this is a memory we are your songs
go bake a tart
now honda civics rush out of the PA system for their
numbered asses are parking in the wrong places and their
daughters are late for ballet and what are you doing
like the pietà holding a loaf of white bread
and weeping by the cake display?
automation has made cheesecake readily accessible
to every household in the nation state one enters the
shopping bag
one your knock onto the floor a boy in a bright blue t-
shirt points at you and gawks and hides behind his
grandfather
babies are eating flies in the heat babies are tasting iron
in their gums
your wig droops slightly your fridge no longer hums
in the right key
yes the meek shall inherit the earth
and we will celebrate with bespoke cocktails
