L Kiew___(Penang, 1932)
_________(i)
Lao ma believes the dead
cling to their possessions.
My dress is red shantung;
its last occupant is
heart-broken and tugging
on my hem as I step
onto the polished floor.
My partner is her ex-
husband. He holds me out
at arms’ length, cold and stiff.
I waltz around, around.
When I sink down, a white hand
strokes my feet, smearing black
blood over my cracked heels.
_________(ii)
Ah Jek visited that night,
breath stinking of arak.
Those black brogues. Give them back.
Five daughters, many school shoes.
There wasn’t enough
money to buy brand-new.
Shoes taken off, gather
dust and ash. Ah Jek wears
loafers, a paper suit.
_________(iii)
In his office of black scrolls
Yama reads out the sentence.
_________I repudiate; not me.
I dispute until Dawn tugs
urgently on Yama’s sleeve.
Sticky rice, I’ll harvest next
time. _____His ink-stained index traces
down the next night’s ledger and
he goes.___ I am slammed awake.
Next door someone is crying.
I splay my bunched fingers.
In the first hand, a red silk
cord, a thin white braid of hair;
in the second hand, an egg.
L Kiew is on the ten-person shortlist for Primers Volume III. ‘Second-hand’ is from her shortlisted manuscript Foreign Language Syndrome. We’ll be showcasing the work of all the shortlisters writers over the next two weeks, so check back to read more poems.
A Chinese-Malaysian living in London, L Kiew earns her living as an accountant. In 2017 she took part in the Poetry School/London Parks and Garden Trust’s Mixed Borders Poets Residency Scheme and has been accepted onto the Toast Poetry mentoring programme.
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