I sit alone in this café.
NaPoWriMo, or National Poetry Writing Month, is an annual project in which participating poets attempt to write a poem a day for the month of April. This is my attempt at 30 poems in 30 days.
The cheap fake wood that lines these walls
Covered with lines and lines of words that make no sense.
The lull of the evening crowd punctuated by explosions of laughter
I hide safe, shielded from distractions by a mug of Chai,
pushing thoughts, twisting them as they flow
from my mind to will, to the pen on paper.
I summon confidence and creativity,
I wield them like a scalpel in a surgeon's hands.
But I'm not used to their cold precision.
And yet I ready my pen as if to make the final incision.
Possibilities stack up like a deck of cards,
and I remember the conversation with the Queen of hearts
I remember the heat of the day spilling over into the heat of her words
An angry red painted on an angry face
Forgetting for a moment that we were all hearts.
That we were all on the same side.
What consequences are left to be carried?
Her raw, rude gestures, suddenly drastic.
As if deliberate, as though practiced,
The fury of words released like a rehearsed script,
The delivery perfect. Brutal. Award-winning.
I never stood a chance.
- Daryl Goh
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