A Month of Poetry

I have decided to dedicate October to poetry. After all, as Patti Digh says: "Give up the morning news for a morning poem. Just for now. You can go back to people killing each other over nothing in a month. They’ll still be doing it, but you’ll be fuller, richer, wiser, perhaps more serene in the face of it. Your vocabulary may be deeper in sheer nuance, in the miraculous juxtaposition of this and not-this."

So to kick off my month of poetry, here is one from one of my favourite poets from this part of the world (Singapore) Pooja Nansi. This one is taken from her "Love Is An Empty Barstool" which is the only reading material I took with me for the Bersih 4 rally.

Six Years On

I wonder if you would know me if
you saw me now your bones are dissolved
powder but mine still feel an ache in their pulsing
marrow for your touch sometimes in my dreams
I almost dream that you are alive again and you are
flesh and laughter, thought and blood
but look at me, Kelvin, I never shout any more
I speak slower and think harder
I listen to Robert Palmer I don't ask for answers
I wait for the universe to deliver or let me be delivered
from my expectations no I have not learned patience
but I no longer think time should keep up with me
I learnt the hard way clocks do not stop
even with death but look at me I am kind
and when I want to blame somebody for my black look,
I write but you, you haunt my poems and make me stop
I am no longer angry just sorry and I want you back
want you back want you back oh I want you back you
see it doesn't matter how long my hair is now
no I don't smoke any more and I've stopped being angry
I want to dance but you are gone and I am here
oh I am still here look at me I have learned to laugh
at mistakes, pick myself up and I am such a different colour
now but still I cannot believe in a god
who confuses being alive for being condemned
the taste of you is still blessed vivid in the cells of my tongue
you used to try to turn me to the light in my life
so look at me my dead and always alive love
oh, if you saw me now

(Pooja Nansi)