Boey Kim Cheng is a Singapore-born Australian poet. He is of Chinese descent. As a student, he won the National University of Singapore Poetry Writing/Creative Prose Competition and has since received the National Arts Council's Young Artist Award
I'm sitting on my haunches, balancing
the weight of my body on the balls of my feet,
rocking a little in the nipping night air
out on the roof of a hostel on Broadway.
...
In the exhibition poster stands J.S. Bach,
dusty and grimed, but unbroken, unscathed,
in a poise graceful, his air baroque,
as if the bombardiers wanted him saved
...
for Win Pe
While the quivering blue note of dusk
lasts, we lie in our rooms, bound
...
Another place, another life, another book,
we go on without a return ticket, on the trail
of the vanished song, the elusive lines unlocking
...
for Maria Freij
For years you hugged the coast, steering close
to the sense of loss, sounding out the landfalls, the echoes
...