Christmas in Chinatown

Christmas in Chinatown

Jonathan Chan

Singapore

each blinking neon bulb sings
its song of praise. shophouses 
pulsate in a line. so too does 
the evening, air laced with 
the weight of water. signs 
signal the looming of a new
moon. divine mercy is its 
own economy. the art deco
church rises up in a spiral,
walls cream, windows blue. 
a shape furnishes a model
for death. a harmony swells for
a story of life. the night comes
as a wave of kindnesses, a 
spread of ash and salt. 
counting the incense, the rams,
the oil, i know not where i
begin and the darkness
ends. dread surrenders to
desire. the infant is appearance 
and essence, contingency and 
need, loss and gain. bowing 
amidst an equatorial winter, 
waiting tightens in a humid 
glimmer.

---

Jonathan Chan
Poet & Author

Jonathan is the author of going home (Landmark Books), and has been published in Quarterly Literary Review Singapore and The Plentitudes.

Photography by Lerone Pieters