Cheng Him
Issue 1: RISE, July 2023
In times to come, will there be people who will have real faith in these
teachings?
– The Diamond Sutra
ah seng ah, when you go to school
remember hor, dont ownself own
ownself. what the teacher say is
what the teacher say. ask yourself:
what is it ah seng wants to say?
nowadays students very guai hor,
nobody smoking at staircase. nobody
fucking at staircase also. teacher say:
times have changed, time to move on.
ah seng ah, ask yourself: where is it
you want to go? ten years after your
highlight bo liao your teacher maybe
still be here. ten year people cook
fried rice you call master but ten year
in school you call what? ah seng ah,
dont ownself own ownself. what the
teacher say is long time ago already.
ask yourself: ten year later where are you?
you can say lah, maybe time is like the
staircase, full of cigarette butt and sex
but ah seng ah, when you say this kind
of thing, you got ask yourself not:
ten year pass already why
you still coming back to here?
Cheng Him is from Singapore. They write mainly about the people whose work is their body, in the language that they speak. Their work explores form and language, and has been featured in Strange Horizons, Quarterly Literary Review Singapore (QLRS), The Kindling, Tiger Moth Review, among others. They are part of the writing group known as the ATOM Collective.