03 /12 /2026
Life bearable only if a lifer can
manage to fool himself that he need not feel
any shame for choosing to sleep behind bars
from one cage to the next – through whose doors i move
needing neither to open them nor to slam
them behind me with bogus finality
in sentimental gesture to the idea
of being done with at least one frustration
to freedom – one more bedroom or house or car
or café or office or toilet where stains
from the spills of habitual performance
are mixed up with the deliberate markings
of desperate loneliness’s need to leave
evidence of its once having been – leave proof
once and again and again that life once knew
itself
(from Limboa, a sentimental anthem
by Brian Chan, 2023)
FARJOURNEY CARIBBEAN 