"Post Colonial Fairy Gossip", Elizabeth L Fong
after American Gods
This is the one where Titania actually visits a divorce lawyer after months of swanning around Bukit Timah, complaining about Oberon’s new lang suir mistress who gave him chlamydia. She ups and leaves the Seelie Court in Queen Astrid Park for the Unseelie Court in Yishun, but gets waylaid by an Eat Pray Love pilgrimage somewhere in Khatib. A jenglot sees her sitting in an angsana tree, spitting red seeds at mousedeer, and tells the hantu tetek, who tells the hantu galah, who tells Puck.
Puck sees her at Northpoint Mall sometime around Christmas, trying on slutty santarina costumes. I heard you went full crazy, says Puck. How’s the turf war with the Oily Man, says Titania. I am sick when I do look on thee, says Puck. The turf war had taken place a hundred years ago. Puck lost.
Puck leaves. Titania returns to Yishun Dam with her slutty santarina costume. Oberon swings by, hoping for reconciliation and a Christmas miracle, but Titania says what, jealous Oberon! I have forsworn his bed and company. Oberon makes an ass of himself. The toyol laugh him back to Bukit Timah.
Titania doesn’t tell anyone about the dreams. Sometimes she dreams she’s back in Athens. She dreams of a donkey, a wedding, and a time when she loved Oberon. It’s been centuries since she came to these jungles, and even longer since she’s been in love. When she wakes, sobbing, the Pontianaks leave their trees to come to her. Love is savage, they say, and dry her face with their hair. It is always better to yearn for life instead.
/ Elizabeth L Fong is a lawyer, poet, and member of the poetry collective Zer0sleep. Her work has been published in A Given Grace, an anthology of Christian poetry, and various SingPoWriMo anthologies.
/ COMMENTARY
“My Fantastic Prompt, designed to promote the notion of speculative poetry, also yielded two favourites. Elizabeth Fong’s “Postcolonial Fairy Gossip” is a deliciously chatty yet lyrical reimagining of A Midsummer Night’s Dream in Singapore (I’m a sucker for interwoven world mythologies).”
/ Q&A
What inspired you to write this poem?
I’d recently re-read American Gods, and wanted to explore the tension between the stories that the colonists had brought — greek mythology, Shakespeare — and the folklore that had already existed here for centuries.
How has writing for SingPoWriMo impacted you as a poet?
It’s been such a gift! The SingPoWriMo community is incredibly kind, constructive and giving — I don’t think I would still be writing poetry if it wasn’t for SingPoWriMo. I am also a member of a poetry collective, zer0sleep, that was formed out of SingPoWriMo. zer0sleep’s grace and insight has sharpened my poetic voice, and I have been so privileged to be able to have read and grown from their work.
What would you say to someone thinking about taking part in the next SingPoWriMo?
Take the plunge! Set yourself the challenge of finishing all 30 days - just sit down for five minutes, draft something, and sit on it until you have another five minutes to look at it again. Then post. Get into the rhythm of it! Poetry is a practice, so practise it!