Leong Liew Geok (b. 1947)
SELECTED POEMS
Women Without Men
Already ringed by daughters
And no son, they keep
Trying and trying still
And trying until
Tired out, afraid of mothering
More women,
They stop.Contoured by choice,
They manage people over
The children they can’t imagine
Bearing or diapering. Or the men
They won’t concede lives to.
Work pushes old
Age off.Unused to the new,
Some, not knowing
What to do, are afraid,
Though it may be a blessing
That women outlive men,
And singleness is theirs
Again.
by Leong Liew Geok
from Women Without Men (2000)
