Wong May (b. 1944)
SELECTED POEMS
Kampong Bahru, 1975
The expanse
of sadness inherent in the Muezzin’s voice makes
distances
near: a motion really
that moves the immediate
the hair, the sleeves, the burnt grass
near the gravel. Dawn or Dusk, especially
in the dusk that lays waste
the skies; Immutable — from what
neighbouring planet year
after year
the same ray, half-serene, half-
terrible as over an ancient battle-field?
Calling from all corners
not a corner
not his minaret. The voice
looks in all nooks &
crevices
a scent really,
released
from the earth.
If as a child I’ve said
“one day I shall have no home”
nearing that hour of the
day, prompted by
that voice, & partly in
answer, now it is said
over & again
echoing everywhere, creeping like lizards
the lostness that 20 years later has
fetched me here.
by Wong May
from Superstitions (1978)
