Vacant Heart-Mind

Vacant Heart-Mind

Christian Yeo

Imagine the man upon a stone
imagine the man who sits alone
winding the river the river as prayer
prayer the river prayer the jailer.

Once in a book I read:
after a fear of pigeons
the next most common phobia
is the fear of God.

Look, I said once, look, lookout,
the pigeon, the pigeon, the rat
as flying, the rat as vermin.
No one noticed the pigeon but me
I got up and lay down so the pigeon
would fly and land and die over me.

The man goes alone until again
a stone becomes a stone unhomed
so the home is emptied, embodied,
amok with knowledge,
so far as God the one gone knowing.

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Christian Yeo
Poet & Writer

Published in Gaudy Boy’s New Singapore Poetries & The Mays

Photography by Haydin Olivia Oechsle