Featured Poem: July 2002

the fire
by Cyril Wong

Mother cried softly
to herself afterwards,
while sister pretended

nothing was happening
and dumped her boyfriend
on the phone

while I sat before
the computer and built
a poem like a fire.

first stoking, then rising
to enter it, while father
fled this burning house

like an arsonist.

from the end of his orbit/poems by Cyril Wong, 2001, firstfruits publications, Singapore

[poem featured here with permission of author]