Selected by Carl Phillips as a finalist for the Omnidawn Chapbook Contest
2.58 AM at a vending machine
1
someone’s sigh
pushes through
to the front
2
mute foil wrapper on the floor
makes a statement with its stark,
full-bodied himalayas
3
far-away voices come at night.
their sounds are elusive.
like ghosts, they persist.
millennial asleep on the sofa
eyes chittering like insects.
his mouth is dry it clicks in the way
two people click or
a group forms a clique.
the internet is where childhood goes to die.
o rly?
basement dweller
without a basement,
it sleeps clutching its
disintegrating pillow and iPhone.
dark rings of damp
around the pebble of its eye:
it dreams of the broken screen
of heaven, a flood of white light.
Nicholas Chng reading: “2:58 AM at a vending machine.”
Nicholas Chng reading: “millenial asleep on the sofa.”
Nicholas Chng studies Law at Singapore Management University. He has been named a Commended Foyle Young Poet of the Year. His work has appeared in Ceriph, QLRS, Softblow, burntdistrict, Cadaverine and the exhibition MICROCOSMOS by studio KALEIDO