Two Poems

Shu-Ling Chua

Born in Melbourne to Malaysian–Chinese parents, Shu-Ling Chua 蔡淑羚 is an essayist, poet, zine-maker, and author of the award-winning essay collection Echoes. Her work has appeared in Peril, Meanjin, Rabbit, Triangle House Review, 4A Papers, and elsewhere. She is interested in unexpected beauty, small joys, and quiet epiphanies. Shu-Ling also fantasises about quitting her job and never working another day in her life.

These two poems are inspired by a character played by Maggie Cheung Man-yuk 張曼玉 in the film In the Mood for Love 花樣年華 (2000)

angry:
she swallows mahjong tiles, snaps the square table in two,
sets fire to the handbag her husband bought her.

hungry:
she makes a pot of 芝麻糊.
Mr. Chow thinks she loves him but it’s the rain she loves.

leaving:
she takes the rice cooker, her floral slippers, daffodil cheongsam
and a glass tumbler—just one.

芝麻糊—black sesame soup, a popular Chinese dessert

Becoming Queen of the Moon

Adopting 100 kittens

Baking 蛋挞 laced with pure feminine rage

Driving on and on and on and on and on

Writing a graphic novel

Quitting her job and never working another day in her life

蛋挞—egg tarts, a popular Chinese dessert

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