Ng Yi-Sheng (b. 1980)
1. BIOGRAPHY
2. CRITICAL INTRODUCTION
3. SELECTED POEMS
“The Audience” and “Encounter” from A Book of Hims (2017)
4. SELECTED VIDEOS
SELECTED POEMS
The Audience
One day they will come for us:
the foolish ones, the intellectuals.
One day we will burn
like scrolls in Alexandria.
One day they will break down the gates
of our black box operas and ateliers.
Rip the masks from our faces
and the angklungs from our hands.
Listen,
they've sacked a museum,
outlawed an Aztec epic.
They’ve dynamited an Afghan Buddha,
a Dutch Madonna,
censored a film.
Listen,
the Khmer Rouge just called;
they want to take your photo.
The revolution must always devour
her brightest children.
Tonight you may sleep with them,
eat of their festivals, drink of their mooncake,
engineer their Moscow mausoleums -
but never forget:
One day, they will come,
a mighty parade, in a stadium built of our bones.
Open your mouth and sing:
it has always happened,
it has not happened, yet.
Encounter
The beautiful Burmese man on the train
is dead on his feet, fighting with sleep,
hanging from a handrail, haversack dusty,
clean brown skin, chin bobbing low
on his factory T-shirt. I cannot determine
his age: white flecks in his hair, face strong
and uncreased and gentle. You could die
counting all the folds in his eyelids. I decide
he is young: titanium-esque watch,
faux-trendy flip-flops. He swings
toward me: the fragrance of alcohol on
his breath, a pink plastic bag
of Styrofoam supper, cellphone high
in his pocket, ready for theft.
And then he sees me, raises his head
and gazes with bloodshot eyes.
I reach my station. Somebody offers him
a seat.
by Ng Yi-Sheng
from A Book of Hims (2017)
