2019 Singapore
Winning Poems
Winning Poets
1. Siti Yuliatun
2. Yulia Endang
3. Shy Lhen Esposo
Winning Poems
Siti Yuliatun | For Your Sake
For the sake of a spoon of rice
For a sip of water
For the sake of the earth that I lived in
My body was touched
Poor sweat flow
My bones feel broken
But my feet didn't waver
I ask
At thatch on the edge of the road
Where is the angel?
Which is said to protect me
But thatch remained silent
I shouted at the waves
"I am tired, God...."
The waves rolled up my voice
Throwing it into the middle of the ocean
Then burnt to the reef
Ancestors' scales
Drop off me in my daydream
He said
"Women are born to love"
But I was far wasted
For the sake of scavenging dreams
I prostituted myself
Not to be laid
But squeezed in energy and heart
A slice of bread for the day
A sip of throat wetting coffee
According to the direction of the index finger
Screeches become songs
Curse complementary rhythm
"Then what should i do?"
I asked the passing lizard
"Just obey what they want"
Answer the fly that perched on the ear
The clock on the wall crept slowly
Just like me who is waiting for time
When will I return to Motherland?
Yulia Endang | Burden of the Language
All the letters, the words, the sentences
Jostling in distress
Fear written all over her face
Demanding by the test
She felt tension in her chest
About dreams that she chases
With all hopes swirling in her
She sat in a corner
Feeling heavy burden on her shoulder
Tried to figure-out the future
That seems to be a little bit cruel
Her past has brought her here in an unknown country
Thought she could dodge from calamity and insanity
Little did she know, that she will be welcomed by catastrophe
While she has no idea what is gonna be
All the letters, the words, the sentences
Did you know the difficulty
To embrace new vocabulary
In our memory which is troubled by unclarity
And yes, I found smile on some faces in different places
Broadly welcoming new guests
Left me with questions in my head as I didn’t hear any syllable being stressed
But why, why you’re late to compare
And end up with being unfair
And you keep on delay until all the letters, the words and sentences perish
Then the rule you demolish
But you forgot to unleash
The burden of the language
Shy Lhen Esposo | The Noid Girls
That part of the road
and sidewalk untended
where weeds and the windblown
trash end up
and where the young go astray
the night invites them out
And they become like the tar on the road
melting as summer sweeps
its long tail once more
separating from the road
and licks at the bluish worn stones
People peer through the glass
looking down toward
the rugged ragged brick
to where the paranoid girls scurry
The junk they transport scattered
against their wall
So chipped and bleached and cracked
embedded into the unplastered wall
addicted to the toxic
graffiti that tags it up
slowly becoming a piece
of the dead street.