Pooja Nansi (b. 1981)
SELECTED POEMS
Some Cities
Some cities you visit and some you inhabit. In some cities the road names roll off your tongue. Joo Chiat, Koon Seng, Duku Road. Google Maps shows you the route without the short cuts you know from habit. In some cities you know where a half pint of beer costs five dollars, know it is next to the dodgy KTV lounge with the tinted doors you have always been curious to be on the other side of. In some cities, you walk without navigation, without worry, you know the night will end with a two dollar fifty cent bowl of wantan mee, know you will get a soup spoon of black sauce and chilli, know you will shovel with chopsticks into your mouth, know when the auntie from China lands it on your table to say Xie Xie Ni. Some cities feel something like relief. Some cities are absorbed in your imprint. Some cities are where the answers should have been.
by Pooja Nansi
from We Make Spaces Divine (2021)
