Pull the drawstring to close the sea into a lake
- Pull the drawstring to close the sea into a lake
Pull the drawstring to close the sea into a lake.The sea is wild but one can walk around the lake.
This small country is famous for its new bird park.Wings clipped, the pink flamingoes flower on the lake.
These birds of paradise are trimmed to map the walksso that their orange flames direct you to the lake.
A naked flame is dangerous. Replace the candlewith a lightbulb and hang the lantern over the lake.
The eye sees everything else at a proper distance.The weathered sign says twenty miles more for the lake.
The lover stands in no location but his feet.He is close to the lake. The lover is the lake.
To see flamingoes, flowers, flames as forms of sea,you must strip to the skin and enter, Jee, the lake. [End Page 487]
Jee Leong Koh is the founder of the literary nonprofit Singapore Unbound, which organizes the biennial Singapore Literature Festival in New York City. His books—which have been translated into Japanese, Chinese, Malay, Russian, and Latvian—include Steep Tea, which was named a Best Book of the Year by the Financial Times; Payday Loans; Equal to the Earth; Seven Studies for a Self Portrait; Shadows of Japan: Images and Words, which is a collection of haiku and photography; and The Pillow Book, a collection of Zuihitsu.
