What Would You do When You Say You Love
by Nicholas Y. B. Wong

 

If the sun’s still here, I’ll kiss you when
it retires for the day, not to compare your
cheek to its face, as they’re equally red,
equally warm, and equally in front of me.

If the world dies, I’ll bring you to Iceland and
see the land sink, inch by inch, minute after minute,
immerse our feet in the engulfing water,
water that kills and remembers.

If the forest roars and trees panic, I’ll be your fairy
and elbow our way out, shall my fingers be cut by thorns
and branches, shall my eyes not see your face anymore,
I still have my hand to remind me of you.

If death stops working, I’ll renovate a funeral parlour
and stay there with you, we won’t be disturbed, as people
already stop dying, dying is a new luxury no one can afford.
Let’s make love in a coffin and breathe with darkness
when it’s closed.

 

 







Challenging the Norm:
An Interview with Nicholas Y. B. Wong

Lacey N. Dunham, this editor: First of all, congratulations on being selected for our inaugural Poet Spotlight. I was truly thrilled when you accepted!

Nicholas Y.B. Wong:  Thank you for selecting me. I am also very excited about this.

LND:  In your poem “The God Box,” you write: “Stories have to be told first.” What stories do you hope to tell through your work? Who is your audience?

NYBW: Well, I think the question of audience will concern (non-)fiction writers more than poets because no one would dream of making money by being a poet. Yet, I can’t say I entirely neglect the audience issue when writing. It is just not my priority. I am more concerned with how to shape the piece better and how to make it different from anything available in the market. In other words, I ask: why does this piece represent me?

Meanwhile, I do write about different subject matters. Some are easily understood by the local viewers as they are based on local/Asian news and I do find that they are easily accepted by the Asian market (e.g. Indian and Filipino print/online journals). I am still trying to figure out what the Western market is looking for in an Asian voice.

Most writers start by writing about themselves, therefore making their writing full of their own ego. This, as Charles Olson notes, may not be a good thing. And I have to say my poems are not entirely ego-less. But what I want to tell in my poems is certainly not myself, but how I perceive my hometown and my life as a writer.