Quarterly Literary Review Singapore
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Vol. 3 No. 1 Oct 2003

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Return to Kuantan

Some memories are a shoe
outgrown with the years.
The pearls of light hung on
the harbor like a necklace,
had been replaced by towers
rising from the bay, sparkling
like a studded shirtfront. I felt
my guts twist into a knot.

I tried to bring to mind the smell
of spices, of shrimp sizzling
in the stalls near the bleached sands
of Telok Chempedak, as the ship
eased toward its assigned berth.
I rummaged in my memory for lips
redolent of mint, and breasts
the hue of small, ripe bananas.

Fifty years have passed since
I sprinted up a gangplank, eager
to begin the journey home.
How could I know that day
I would never leave the arms
of the Eurasian girl from Singapore,
who'd live in my desire like loss,
unrecoverable as time passed.

By Oswald LeWinter


QLRS Vol. 3 No. 1 Oct 2003

_____


About Oswald LeWinter
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Return to Vol. 3 No. 1 Oct 2003


 
   
  Other Poems in this Issue

On Silence
By Mark Pirie.

Rimutakas
By Mark Pirie.

Mouth Piece
By W.B. Keckler.

Here Russia spreads her legs like the body compass of a prima ballerina
By Ronny Someck.

modes of transport
By Shazanah Hassan.

Planting Mines
By Thow Xin Wei.

The All-Night Attendant at the Foreign Experts' Compound
By Charles Lowe.

 

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