Poetry Reading

Yesterday, I attended my first poetry reading at a local bookshop, BooksActually. I had to made a rush from the office after work, but I am glad I made it. It was a smallish affair, a few of us reading our works, but it was a good opportunity for me to meet up with my forum friends.

I have not made any speech in front of an audience since many moons ago, and I expect my voice to crack. Perhaps it was the friendly ambience of the place or maybe I was a bit thick-skinned, but my voice just did cracked a bit. I just read one of my personal favourites, "Toolshed", which was published in Quarterly Literary Review Singapore.

Sorry, folks, time for another re-post. I am posting the poem that I read yesterday. :)



image enhanced by dsnake1
from a photo from freepixel.com


Toolshed
construction site, Punggol fields, 1972


It is my job
to fill that soot-blackened kettle
with water,
throw in a handful of tea leaves,
put it over a fire of disused wood
and watch it boil
in the early light blues of Punggol.

My father is in that toolshed
poring over blueprints
of a farm
briefing his foreman,
as dust and insects floated
in the harsh light
of fluorescent lamps.

Soon my father will amble over
pour himself a drink from that kettle
into a grimy metal cup.
I will offer him a cigarette
and we will squat there by the wayside
smoking, the sweet wisps of Camels
swirling in the cool morning air.

Then we will go over to the toolshed,
collect our claw hammers, plumb lines,
nails, tape measures,
light up some joss to the earth god,
as Blackie, the mongrel guarding the shed,
darker than Cerebus from Hell,
comes over sniffing our heels.

We haul planks, measure, hammer,
in the uncompromising sun,
sometimes seeking solace
in the shadows of the wooden moulds
jutting out of mud and rock like pruned tree trunks.
The smell of sawn wood clings to us
like a stigma.

When the day is done,
the sun painting streaks of gold and crimson
on the clouds, we dust
ourselves of sawdust and wood shavings,
feed the dog,
and gather at the toolshed,
lingering, for a final smoke in the fading sun,


as did our forebears before us
in America in Hong Kong
building railroads, harbours
hunched over camp fires,
drinking tea from grimy cups
swopping stories about home
in Canton half a life away.

Then we pile into
our cars and bikes
for the weary journey home.
the stars are coming out
in that vast bowl of sky,
the cirrus clouds rolling
dark angry strips of floss

in the darkening light
over a plain of wild grass
         over

the exact centre of our universe..


20.10.2005
**********

mood of the day