Toh Hsien Min (b. 1975)
SELECTED POEMS
The Rules
Zest lemons. Set your alarm early for the pleasure of hitting the snooze button.
Walk off the map. Find your own secluded beach. Slip out of your shoes.
Smile for no reason. Cross at the lights, just not always when they are green.
Bake fresh cookies. Turn on a dime when you have a dime to turn around.
Pretend to be serious. Assume other people have different points of view.
Take the other road, it really is shorter. Do favours for those you don't like.
Dress like you mean it. Amble in the rain without opening your umbrella.
Taste every wild berry you find. Lift your hands off the handlebars.
Run through the pigeons. Wear French cuffs with a button-down collar.
Turn off your mobile phone. Make no promises your heart can't keep.
Refuse the second cigar. Gaze out the porthole during the safety film.
Shave only when you want to. Shop in a foreign supermarket.
Laugh out loud in the library. Know that you know that you don't know.
Eat the fat off a suckling pig. Live next to birdsong, not to crickets.
Talk with the man next to you. Have a spin on the merry-go-round.
Go where your courage fails you. Yawn in public but sneeze in private.
Pretend to pretend to be serious. Summon snow angels in your best suit.
Let the sun wake you. Give up falling in love the instant you catch her eye.
by Toh Hsien Min
from Dans quel sens tombent les feuilles (2016)
