there is little we cannot accomplish
without hearing our voices
the music of not hearing voices
not music but an atmosphere of existence
a bowl of still water with white yellow orchids
curled in a gesture of tenderness across its open mouth
silence over original silence
which invites the hum of phenomena
shoring up against the sigh of newspapers
closing upon the wind’s request
analogies falling back upon themselves
so nothing becomes divisible again
neither we nor I may write this into memory
traces of words laddering into breath
that fills the living with no particular feeling
and departs in no particular time
CYRIL WONG is a poet and fictionist in Singapore. He is the founding editor of SOFTBLOW, a poetry web journal.