Kim Cheng Boey Poems

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
...

The house and yard dressed in a skin of ash.
It was raining embers, the night air thronged
with giddy petals that swirled
...

On Little Bourke Street it's the bewitching hour
of winter dusk's last riffs playing
long mauve shadows down the blocks,
...

The thin twirled candles neatly planted
around the marzipan Pooh, my daughter puffs
her cheeks, poised to blow
...

We are on a slice of land
riding out into Lake Macbride, Iowa.

Poets, novelists, artists, people who try to make sense
...

Jackhammer pangs of hunger stabbing
at the mind, we drag our depleted bellies through
late-night Chinatown, sniffing out meals
...