Poetry at Sangam
Poetry at Sangam showcases poetry in English and translations as well as essays on poetics and news of new releases.
afterAfterwork, an exhibition exploring issues of class, race, labor,
and migration in Hong Kong, its surrounding region, and beyond.
Proof 1: Hit Man Gurung, I Have To Feed Myself, My Family and My Country (2013, acrylic on printed canvas)
after Shampoo Notes on Thomas Hardy’s “The Ruined Maid”
A story: a girl lets loose
a balloon. No one blames
a motion when it bursts.
Like the second stanza, the first
begins with the speaker talking
about her head. Its past,
how she’s forced to give it up,
how she substantiated herself
through, and with, other
headless sisters, her BFF’s.
BFF: Bartered For Fortune.
A head for a house, a pink
school bag of dirt. A head
vaginally salty like a broken
sea urchin. When her head
left, she was in rags (“tatters”),
in a crowd of thighs
without occupation. [Any verb/
noun] your head makes a Cantonese
slang that means denial. Also
meaning, hermeneutically,
repatriation without reaching
home. Examples: Holiday
your head. Look back your head.
Obverse of “prosperi-ty”
(in rupiah): Red. Headshots
of some men. Reverse: IPhones sent
back home, that edge. At night,
she remits in images, in sync
with the reticent am.
The poem first appeared in Wasafiri.
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