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Moving People With Words

Poems on the MRT

Poem without a Title by Chrystal Ho

 

Strange, isn't it, how it gets harder to breathe
surrounded by trees. I'm becoming buried
beneath the weight of forgotten names.
There are only so many leaf shapes
a person can take before slinking back
into the shelter of concrete walls, air conditioning,
elephants migrating across a television screen.
Each day, I flip through the picture books,
in search of the owner of a glimpsed crest,
another black nape. Outside, the trees sway,
the knowledge they hold, vaster
than the sum of all their names.
I wonder how they'd name us, given
what they've seen. If they'd be merciful
enough to also give us a name.

— Published in Elsewhere, the Cosmo Cracks (2025)

Chrystal Ho is the author of Elsewhere, the Cosmos Cracks (AFTERIMAGE Press), whose manuscript was a finalist for the 2024 Gaudy Boy Poetry Book Prize. Her poetry and nonfiction can be found in Portside Review, PR&TA, Kopi Break Poetry, and Sine Theta Mag, among others.

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Poems on the MRT is an initiative by the National Arts Council, in partnership with SMRT and Stellar Ace. Produced by Sing Lit Station, a local literary non-profit organisation, this collaboration displays excerpts of Singapore poetry throughout SMRT’s train network, integrating local literature into the daily experience of commuters. Look out for poems in English, Chinese, Malay, and Tamil in trains on the East-West, North-South and Circle Lines, as well as videos created by local artists and featuring local poets in stations and on trains. The Chinese, Malay, and Tamil poems are available in both the original languages and English. To enjoy the full poems, commuters may read them on go.gov.sg/potm.

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