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Eileen Chong

Eileen Chong

Eileen Chong was born in Singapore of Hakka, Hokkien, and Peranakan descent. She is the author of nine books, her most recent being A Thousand Crimson Blooms (UQP, 2021). She lives and works on unceded Gadigal land of the Eora Nation.

'Curlew', a poem by Eileen Chong

March 2022, no. 440 22 February 2022
For M.F.   What is the use of a full moonnow we do not harvest by its light? There is no one else standing here,lifting their face to the star-studded sky. Do you see the moon’s craters, its dark side?It simply hangs there, brilliant white – * In the living room the childrenand I mime spinning on an axis. We tread an elliptical path aroundthe sun of the dying woman. Later, she gif ... (read more)

‘City Lights: San Francisco’, a new poem by Eileen Chong

June–July 2014, no. 362 01 June 2014
For H. Tamvakeras I was reading a poem in that upstairs sunlit room when I looked up and thought I saw you, Harry, standing beside the window across from the apartment where laundry hung outside like a fireman’s ladder snaking down the brickwork. The man had your narrow shoulders, the same frail back, your steel-grey hair. His head was covered by a baseball cap. He was miss ... (read more)

'After Pintauro', a new poem by Eileen Chong

December 2010–January 2011, no. 327 08 June 2011
And on my travels I came across a boy holding his purple heart in his hands like a broken cup. I touched the handle – it turned into a bluebird and tottered away on unsteady feet. The boy unfolded himself into a crane and tucked his head under a wilted wing. His leg, a post from which a flag flew red, blue and white. I lowered the flapping thing onto the ground and it spread out like ... (read more)