Love Across the Causeway

Judith Huang

Meet cute (10/3/2023)

Instant sparks
You striding down the corridor
after your comedy set
You killed it.
I say.
To my delight you take the seat right next to me
and before the night is over
you ask me out.
I think I just got picked up.
I text the friend who’d brought me to the show
and meanwhile you’re busy googling me
and getting nervous for what
we both hope
but don’t know is a date.

Maybe it’s fate
that one day after
I return to the mothership
after the long three pandemic years
I meet my soulmate.
It’s so sweet
that we just don’t know it yet.

— —

Har Gau (11/3/23)

At Swee Choon dimsum
the poets’ hangout
you flex your culinary skills
but tell me you won’t eat
the har gau because you keep
tiny prawns as pets
which I find hilarious
so I eat two myself
they are so slippery
so moist
so pink on the inside
just like your parting lips

— —

Pink IC (11/3/23)

When you tell me
about the house you left
across the causeway
in JB
the two German Shepherds
who still couldn’t keep the burglars away
and how safe you now feel
in your bed here at night
I can’t help but wonder
if my pink IC
would have been another factor
had you not just gotten
one yourself.
I imagine growing up here
but without the privilege
of that little card
And wonder if it’s crass
to want to compensate for all this
with a kiss

— —

All At Once (13/3/23)

Rewatching Everything Everywhere
All At Once
at the Projector
the day Michelle Yeoh won her Oscar
I want to lean in to kiss you
when you whisper
This is the most romantic scene…
Would I spend a lifetime
doing laundry and taxes with you?
Your arm grazing my arm
we’re both not even sure yet
if we’re on a date.
At 1826
by the river side
you ask me if we are.

I was trying to flirt with you I say.
I think you’re cute too you reply.
From then it’s an easy hour
to our first kiss by the steps
of the river.

You smell of night.
My eyes blur
over the tiny lights reflected
on the water’s dancing skin
like so many universes
dividing and dividing.

— —

Void Deck (15/3/23)

There just aren’t enough places
on the island to make out
so we go to an undisclosed
void deck, and you
finger me while looking
deep in my eyes
and the way you gasp
yeah
when I ask if it’s turning you on
to turn me on
makes me want
to draw you into me
and I don’t care
who might be watching

— —

Home Fragrance and Incense (19/3/23)

At Ultrasupernew
the video installation isn’t working
but it doesn’t stop us
talking, kissing in the dark.
Apparently, I can just stare
at a blank screen
with you I say.
I guess it’s the company
that matters you reply.
The room smells of expensive perfume
You smell my wrist, breathe in my hair.

Outside, you pretend to be the hawker
bringing me Hakka suanpan
and chrysanthemum tea
unknowingly turning me on

The incense of Qingming
wafts from the temple
and clings to my black velvet dress
heady, heavy, dense.

— —

The jungles of Malaya (21/3/23)

Our tongues tangle in the dark
Malaysian-Singaporean-Australian
You’ve spent two hours
reading law and politics papers
and telling me of all the rabble-rousing
you did in five years
as a student activist in London.
 
You remind me of my grandpa
I say
and you burst out laughing
lean into me
try to catch your breath
and kiss me again.

The grandpa in question
was in the MPAJA
and did his fair share
of revolutionary theatre
filling my young mind
with the jungles of Malaya
full of freedom fighters
and their shapeshifting
tiger familiars

But this takes too long
to explain, so
I just pause and say
that his eyes
like your eyes
had those little
epicanthic folds
Lenin eyes
fiery with revolution
and staring clear
with a spark
that keeps the glare out
from the tropical sun
as from the reflective snow.

— —

Social Development Unit (22/3/23)

Three dates in
and we’re both being bombarded
with thinly-veiled SDU ads on Instagram
telling us to lower our expectations
when looking for a life partner.
I haven’t lowered anything
except maybe my height requirement.
You’re amazing and hilarious
So is my government’s haste
to get me hitched and producing Singaporeans.
By afternoon
I am seeing ads telling me
I don’t have to be a perfect parent to be a good one
and by evening they are offering advice
for troublesome theoretical teenagers.
I know we’re having a whirlwind romance
but my life is compressed into a pancake
flashing before my eyes
in the form of government ads

— —

Maxwell Food Centre (3/5/23)

Staring into your eyes
for forty minutes
in the al fresco area
of Maxwell Food Centre
we are head over heels
and trying to get our fill
of local food and each other
before my plane leaves in the morning
I’m just sitting there thinking
It’s a miracle
that we’re both
exactly what each is after
our hands inseparable on the table
we don’t even want to leave
to order

— —

Old god (27/3/23)

Back by the river
where we had our first kiss
I say, teasingly,
I don’t have to ask
if we’re exclusive, do I?
Oh, we’re exclusive
you say, not skipping a beat.

So we take out our phones
and delete our dating apps
with a flourish, sealing the deal.
We’re partners you say
with that confident grin.

I like that I whisper
and hold you closer
I’m leaving tomorrow
and I’m savouring your scent
shampoo and sweat

Cradling your head
in my lap
I just can’t imagine
how brutal it will be
without you

And the river winds on
regardless, roiling
like an old god
carrying through the misty fog
something brand new.