Poems, Shirley Geok-lin Lim
Sara Carvalho
Shirley Geok-lin Lim was born in Malacca (Malaysia) in 1944, she is now living in the USA. Her first collection of poems was awarded the Commonwealth prize, a first time for a woman and an Asian. Her poem ‘Pantoun for Chinese Women,’ which describes the infanticide of female babies, is written in pantoum style (a Malaysian technique that involves an intricate repetition of lines). Please read it here. For Jogos Florais, though, we asked Shirley Geok-lin Lim authorization – which was gracefully granted – to publish the delightful ‘Do you live in Singapore?’
Do you live in Singapore?
(With thanks to Wendy Cope)
Can someone make my mother’s wish come true?
Transnational CEO with private plane,
do you live in Singapore? Is it you?
Rich connected family, not kiasu,
successful lawyer, smartly dressed and sane.
Can someone make my mother’s wish come true?
Generous, arty type also can do,
so long as Harvard, Yale-NUS trained.
Do you live in Singapore? Is it you?
Better if you have freehold bungalow:
Thomson, Holland Village, villa in Spain.
Can someone make my mother’s wish come true?
President’s Scholar with high EQ too,
sensitive, sexy dancer with a brain,
do you live in Singapore? Is it you?
Only citizens need apply. We’ve few
other requirements: preference Christian.
Can someone make my mother’s wish come true?
Do you live in Singapore? Is it you?
Shirley Geok-lin Lim, Do You Live In? Singapore: Ethos Books, 2015.
Shirley Geok-lin Lim’s (Research Professor, University of California Santa Barbara) Crossing the Peninsula received the Commonwealth Poetry Prize. Awarded the Multiethnic Literatures of the United States Lifetime Achievement Award for her critical work, she’s published 10 poetry collections; 3 short story collections; novels Joss and Gold,Sister Swing and Princess Shawl (a children’s novel); and The Shirley Lim Collection. Her memoir Among the White Moon Faces and co-edited anthology The Forbidden Stitch received American Book Awards.