i had the pleasure of reading this tanka sequence at a panel during the Singapore Writers Festival 2022:

visiting the grave

of grandma

who never loved me

a moth joins me

in prayer

*

dead grandma

appears in dream

begging

to be loved

i turn her down

*

lighting incense

at dusk

trail of smoke

leads me to

grandma’s photo

*

sounds of wailing

scratching walls

after midnight

ghost of grandma

appears in my room

*

corpse exhumed

from backyard grave

burnt to ashes

by the river ghat

rest in peace nana

***

intersection

of river and sea

paper cranes

snatched away

by hungry waves

*

silence at

war memorial

peace

requires sacrifice

of blood and bonds

*

crossing

the midnight border

carrying

a handful of soil

goodbye home

*

the smoke

of enemy cigarettes

snakes across

demilitarised zone

warning shots fired

*

even the seas

do not get along

separated

by green blue black

coexisting indefinitely