BOOK-DATE AT A CAFE IN MUAR and other poems
Jack Malik
BOOK-DATE AT A CAFE IN MUAR
—for Muar Collector Space
three slices of marbled cake;
a bottle of nostalgia-flavoured
local orange soda
—we gorge all of the yellow warm lights
& the cool estuary’s breeze the night
offered, feeding our love.
your book: rainbow rowell’s simon snow trilogy.
my book: fitzroy morrissey’s short history of islamic thought
out of all contemplation & world-building
story-telling & revelation
relation & memory-making
—these are simple ways i want to afford
loving you and be stationed in life.
— —
Ars Poetica
before poetry and literature and art and culture:
eat, sleep, lepak and bone.
after poetry and literature and art and culture:
eat, sleep, lepak and bone.
— —
LISTENING TO THE MOUNTAIN GOATS IN THE MRT ON A SATURDAY NIGHT HEADING TOWARD THE WATER
coco-cola nights fizzing away
like carbonated dreams popping
all hail the kajang line connecting
livelihoods and distant stations
droopy bronze streetlights cupped visibility
by cutting the dark with sizzling holy neon
what the weekend what the rakyat
what the public mobility morbidly
that fights their way into places where
their cosmos needs to bang big again
what the boom the boom the diddle dee dee
gaddem boom of the mysterious blank
the lo-fi souls and indie hearts with wheel
grinds heard throughout one’s dailiness
all hail the why in everything all hail
the sacredness in nothingnessness
all these while the pj crows stopped arguing
for the day about local bird debates & gossips
what the monsoon what the hallowed wind
rain what the coolness drowse brought with
all hail the movement of bodies all hail the
cancellation of noises and not connections
— —
MONSOON FABLES
morning madness all monsoon long
smells like fables in the making
from mangosteen dawn
‘till blue in green pea dusk
another way a day learns how
to become something they are
while distant mrt stations haunted
by wailing coaches & empty spaces
bemoans the brief stillness looms
each stops absent of pedestrians
evening then rushes instantly like
an unwelcomed punctuation how
beautiful a break is on a page how
meaningful the suddenness of a day
ending without any wasteful resolve
as hollow as a purple husk pried open
the white paw flesh resembles so much
like an unforgotten story waiting to be told
— —
PERAK STATE RAILWAY DREAMING
in soya milk-coloured lights
i am dreaming of home even
when i am home. even when
riding back the 8:22 ktm ets
heading south out of ipoh toward
muddy capital—sunday feels
the same elsewhere. except in a hometown
made out of bougainvillaeas & white coffee air.
except in your company. then those wonderful
sundays feel more sundays. feels worth
dreaming in any slanted light. in any beverages
the colour of thirst, quenched. longing made
undone.
— —
16 JULY 2016
arak antara damansara-ipoh
hanyalah sepanjang sajak ini.
16 JULY 2016
the distance between damansara-ipoh
is only as long as this poem.
— —
GAMPANG
harini aku perasan bunga
kertas sekitar bandar baru nilai
sedang mekar dan aku teringat ipoh
bunga kertas bandar baru nilai
harini yang buatkan aku teringat ipoh
tetap sebagai bunga kertas tapi aku masih
rindukan ipoh sebab bunga kertas ipoh
tetap bunga kertas dan paling penting
ia bunga kertas kat ipoh dan aku kat sini
GAMPANG
today i noticed the bougainvilleas
around bandar baru nilai are in
bloom and i remembered ipoh
the bougainvilleas in bandar baru nilai
today that made me remember ipoh
are still bougainvilleas but i still miss
ipoh because the bougainvilleas in ipoh
are still bougainvilleas and most importantly
it’s bougainvilleas in ipoh and i’m here
— —
Author’s note:
In Indonesia, ‘Gampang’ means easy. In Malay, ‘Gampang’ means bastard. ‘Gampang’ is a common expression/cuss in Ipoh.
Jack Malik is a poet from Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia. Jack has been a part of an artist collective, Projek Rabak, since 2015. Since then, he has been actively writing, performing, and translating poetry. His works have been published internationally in Mekong Review and locally in Dewan Sastera, Selangorkini, Tukang Puisi, Tunas Cipta and more. Jack mainly writes in Malay and has two poetry collections published locally entitled ‘Wannabe Sasau’ and ‘Sajakjakja(c)k’. Jack is also one of the recipients of the Selangor State Literary Prize 2020 (known as Hadiah Sastera Selangor 2020) for poetry.