At Home: Altar / Bedroom

This series of prose and poems were written for an installation presented as part of the Singapore Night Festival 2022, titled "At Home - Meditations on Love" by artist Mariel Chee. Beyond those contexts, these works can be read as reflections across the spaces indicated; cues to find new meaning in the familiar or stretch into the feelings and questions that already exist.

(After John Paul II’s Shores of Silence, 1946-1947)

Altar

I draw closer to you. Where have you been?
It doesn’t matter. What matters is that
All this time I have wandered so –
the long shadows of the world concealing
you, tucked into corners –
the desire in me grows
like a sea that rises
but waters cannot quench
the streams of fire unrelenting. Oh,
to be warm! Kindle this heart
swallowed by the night. Your name,
at the tip of my mouth.

In this Light how can you hide?

In every waking moment I dream of you;
drifting to slumber
seems a distant memory.
I seek the one whom my soul loves
upon this bed at night.
You are so far away
for fear of being seen.
The light breaks. I do not move
I wait with you until
You arrive at this door.

Bedroom

You arrive at this door;
I wait. With you, until
the light breaks, I do not move
for fear of being seen.
You are so far away.
Upon this bed at night
I seek; the one whom my soul loves
seems a distant memory,
drifting to slumber
in every waking moment. I dream of you –

In this Light how can you hide?

At the tip of my mouth,
swallowed by the night: your name.
To be warm, kindle this heart
the streams of fire unrelenting. Oh,
but waters cannot quench
like a sea that rises.
You tucked into corners
the long shadows of the world, concealing
all this time I have wandered so
it doesn’t matter. What matters is that
I draw closer to you. Where have you been?