(with thanks to Han Sai Por’s ‘Shimmering Pearls’)
Daryl Lim Wei Jie
Issue 1: RISE, July 2023
growing up I remember being stunned by how late Ma left the office
(often we would have dinner without her after waiting in vain)
when we managed to get her it’d be after waiting near the office at
Tanjong Pagar I am watching the water fountain the colourful orbs
mounted on wavy steel poles are a cosmos of their own with a
glorious multi-coloured sun an orange orb ink-streaked with green,
maroon and navy blue I wonder what aliens & civilisations reside on
each planet what produce and specialities they trade with each other
what wasteful wars they are fighting what inter-species love stories ...
when Ma at last emerges she’s surrounded with an aura of briskness
& I sense in her a coiled productivity we walk languidly to the
coffeeshop near amoy market (Ma detailing the manifold micro and
macro aggressions of the workplace)
the fish head curry comes an ochre stew (reminding me of the
fountain’s sun) still bubbling fiercely in a claypot this fish head curry is
quite unlike any other the spice and heavier flavours are cut by a
citrus sweetness and pineapple so one doesn’t get too jelak the
gravy lies between a thicker stew and a broth & is perfectly engineered
to accompany white rice & as we eat I feel Ma’s tension melting
away ...
at the end there is the matter of the eye (a contest between Pa & me)
it is a delicious jelly the flesh giving way to gelatin a tenderness
found nowhere else on the fish ...
after I am done consuming & extracting I spit out
a pearl!
Daryl Lim Wei Jie 林伟杰 is a poet, translator and editor from Singapore. His latest collection of poetry, Anything but Human, was a finalist for the 2022 Singapore Literature Prize. He translated Short Tongue, a collection of poetry by the Singaporean Chinese poet Wang Mun Kiat. He co-edited and conceptualised the anthologies Food Republic: A Singapore Literary Banquet, which received a Special Award at the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards, and The Second Link, a forthcoming book of Malaysian and Singapore writing.