Poetry at Sangam

Poetry at Sangam showcases poetry in English and translations as well as essays on poetics and news of new releases.

AT THE SELF-SERVICE LAUNDRY by Chow Teck Seng

Neither good as new, clothes nor the man
And the one who used to wash them
   Has gone away
But the clothes that need washing still need washing
                                                       Still smell familiar

First, put in the garments of youth
   Fabric of memory
Also: love and hate, old skirts
Everything goes into the latest, German-made
Giant washing machine
Insert a few coins
Within the ever more silent and painless cycle
of reincarnation, so it is said,
All will be erased
And reborn
Innocent Stainless

Afterwards, the post-reincarnate clothes
                                                     Skins
                                                     Delusions
                                                     Shells
Are properly folded and stacked
Once, in the folds of a long white dress
Somebody’s deceased mother
Left a strand of long hair
Immaculate
Smelling of fresh soap

That washerwoman
Seems to rise now from
The revolutions of the machine
And from the fog of the dryer
Emerges
In a perfume of scent
With rosy cheeks.

 

(Translated from Chinese by Alvin Pang & the author)

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