{"id":7661,"date":"2026-08-09T12:51:30","date_gmt":"2026-08-09T04:51:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kitsuncheah.com\/?p=7661"},"modified":"2026-08-09T12:51:31","modified_gmt":"2026-08-09T04:51:31","slug":"who-are-you-my-country-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kitsuncheah.com\/?p=7661","title":{"rendered":"Who Are You, My Country?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Who are you,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My country?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many years have I<\/p>\n\n\n\n

breathed of your air<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Drank of your waters<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trod on your bones<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mingled with your flesh<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And yet<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The names of your celebrities are<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Who even are they?)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wind in my ears<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Your latest leaders are<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(now that we are in between elections)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

faceless, forgotten<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Your hawker stall customs are<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Kopi-C, siew dai, mee siam mai hum)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

alien to me<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The clockworks of your apparatus are<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(CPF, COE, HDB)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But hungry ghosts<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By right of blood and soil<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I suppose<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am part of the SingLit scene<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For all my works and all my accolades<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Few in the scene hail me as a fellow<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why, then, should I<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Return the gesture?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the annual parade of<\/p>\n\n\n\n

endless debut authors<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 I see<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Names unknown, names never to be known<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I submit my books as law demands<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Two paperbacks, one ePub)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To moulder forever<\/p>\n\n\n\n

in some forgotten aisle and file<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You celebrate your<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Twin cinema and your<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zoetrope and your<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pantun and syair<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I listen to Li Bai and the Iliad<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Seek Shakespeare and the sagas<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where shall I place<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My finger upon this fissure?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stood have I on East Coast\u2019s sands<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Espada in one hand and daga in another<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Central Library have I found<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The glory that was Greece and the grandeur that was Rome<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Riding the MRT I read tales of men<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Riding dragons and dragon-ships<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have worn your No. 4<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And cradled to my breast American iron<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On 9 August I remember<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A sun falling on the land of the rising sun<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At my void deck have I practiced arts<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Antique in the days of Great Ming<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At your churches and temples have I prayed<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And to me came the all-knowing owl and the far-seeing corvids<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our tongue descends from<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The land of the Angles<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To this legacy I add<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lays of westerly lands<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yours you bury with<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eastern grammar and Outland words<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I hear you<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I will not speak like you<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You hear me<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You do not know me<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is the only way it can be so<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are you not my country?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And am I not your son?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Hellblazer<\/em> meets The Exorcist<\/em> in modern-day Singapore!<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Who are you, My country? Many years have I breathed of your air Drank of your waters Trod on your bones Mingled with your flesh And yet The names of your celebrities are (Who even are they?) Wind in my ears Your latest leaders are (now that we are in between elections) faceless, forgotten Your […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[240,289,341],"class_list":["post-7661","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-writing","tag-poetry","tag-singlit","tag-writing"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kitsuncheah.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7661"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kitsuncheah.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kitsuncheah.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kitsuncheah.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kitsuncheah.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7661"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kitsuncheah.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7661\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7664,"href":"https:\/\/kitsuncheah.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7661\/revisions\/7664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kitsuncheah.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kitsuncheah.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kitsuncheah.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}