New York, Thanksgiving

New York, Thanksgiving

by Pey Pey Oh

“This is a soldier’s kiss”- Antony and Cleopatra

A soldier’s kiss is one that knows
No moment but this.

You move through the world like there’s a war,
Paying a poet’s price.

In haloes of mist and light,
Ranks of trees lean and turn from me,
Looming clear, then dim, in the dawn.

~

I am the girl at the train station,
Throwing flowers,
Waiting for furlough.

I am the girl at the train station,
Shaking the chuff and steam of goodbye,
From the long hair I kept for you.

~

Dried leaves running,
Frightened scurries before the wind,
The only color in gunmetal greyness.

The round sun like a moon in the morning,
The taste of your soldier’s kiss.

© Pey Pey Oh 2009


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Pey Pey Oh has been published in various small magazines along the way, like the ones universities publish, or Magma. Mainly she has a problem sending out things by snail mail, so if she can't hand it to you or send you an email, she's in trouble. She likes plants a lot, especially if they're aromatic, but she's really bad at watering them. Good thing it rains a lot in UK where she lives. She likes coming and hanging out with the Malaysian Poets once a year when she visits home, and loves to read at Readings. Plus, she also likes to go eating with the Food Bloggers, that's her other best activity which makes her feel more Malaysian. One of her ambitions is that she'd like to be "Awae wi' tha faeries" - and that's with a Scots accent - but mostly she's a lazy cat that needs a kicking by her friends to send out stuff. So, she thanks everyone.