"(singapore we must speak)", Nicholas Chng
singapore we must speak about the loneliness
of being in a new country, where you are treated
as lesser and drowned by loud voices. we must speak
about the loneliness of being amongst a family but
as an outsider, mute in a storeroom. we must speak
about the loneliness of your own kin knowing only
a few words of your dialect, of being voiceless. and
we must speak of that loneliness you know best, that strives,
and strives and strives. we must speak to the apparition
of each loneliness, in times like this
(as it appears, both visible and invisible) –
a distant multitude of masked faces.