For when all is said & done you get born again for better days
by Tse Hao Guang
I’m doing great
from the neck down
one minute
wakes
early sweeping the next
shatters & I’m lush
w/ praise
try as you may to silence
the oil spot
the partridge feather
shine & flutter alone remains
as it was before
you crave immediate
effect while I alone remain
as I was before
one moment soap
bubbles the next teacups &
would you have
known this was a sonnet
if I’d not said?
what a world-class world!
About Tse Hao Guang
Hao Guang Tse (谢皓光) is the author of The International Left-Hand Calligraphy Association (Tinfish Press, 2022) and Deeds of Light (Math Paper Press, 2015), the latter shortlisted for the Singapore Literature Prize. He is a 2016 fellow of the University of Iowa's International Writing Program, and the 2018 National Writer-in-Residence at Nanyang Technological University. His poems have been featured in Poem-a-Day, Tammy, New Delta Review, Pain, Minarets, Big Other, Hotel, Asian American Writers' Workshop, Entropy and elsewhere. He was born and raised in Singapore, where he continues to live and work.