What is new
must also be unexpected
and not what we think
is new—
car crash, stalled lift juddering,
bed of thumb slit open, blood
the surprise that keeps on giving—
or else there is no freedom
from our conditioning:
your body too heavy on mine;
your kiss
the same old kiss.
CYRIL WONG is a poet and fictionist in Singapore. He is the founding editor of SOFTBLOW, a poetry web journal.