Theophilus Kwek (b. 1994)

SELECTED POEMS

Corridor

Old KTM Tracks

The raintrees' dance takes lifetimes, years
longer than our music, passing in quick step,
is sovereign to itself, oblivious
of events and, by its own slow grace,

invisible. At this edge of the estate
they rise at arms' length, toes to the line
to keep every heel and turn,
so practiced are they in their variations 

that even now, in the silence of the rails
their branches still stretch by habit
across the aisle. Forgetting themselves,
each comes within a breath of another's crown

then stops, carrying in its spread fingers' shade
an imprint of the next living thing, as sky
cracks open unannounced, a bare
blue river in between. Nothing wanes

this force of life in them. More than
time has covered the tracks, and on either side
saved for a while, a seam of someone else's
land unfolds into green. No wonder

the quiet still kneels to meet us here,
a sanctuary so familiar. We walk
with an unaccustomed ease, not touching.
Our joy is the joy of trees.

by Theophilus Kwek
first published in Quarterly Literary Review Singapore (2001)

 

SELECTED VIDEOS >