Section 267C [Ars Poetica]

Section 267c of the Singapore Penal Code prohibits making, printing, and possessing of any “document containing an incitement to violence”

the first night of my jet lag,

i am being questioned

in front of the legislature.

every MP has printouts of my poems.

what are you trying to accomplish? one tries a soft opening.

i say, when i left, i swore i was going to escape fiction.

swear? you formed an intention, says an MP, a cambridge law alum.

this is not an argument, i say.

there is so much else to write about, says another, shaking his head.

there is a pause.

talk about the tropical flora and fauna instead, the MP for the arts says.

maybe i wanted to say the truth,

exactly as it is, i say.

this is your birth: that is the truth, the arts MP says.

how i was born: gay. no god.

some MP, a born-again, tells me poetry is like a diary.

i say, let me write it in a poem, then:

i will burn this all down.

that’s a figure of speech.

the MPs take notes.

you are disobedient. who will marry you? the born-again MP says.

marriage, as you’ve made it,

is a metaphor, i say.

my poems are produced in front of me,

highlighted in yellow.

a scribe is recording everything i say.

who else responded to this? are you acting alone? this MP asks.

i was told i had to do this on my own.

your writing is an act of violence, the cambridge-law MP says.

this is an example of an image.

i will light matches one by one

and throw them at every window

of your taxpayer-paid house.

the image came to me from thin air, i say.

an incitement, another MP, says. his hands are trembling.

you are violent, the arts MP says.

you are speaking in legal statements, another says.

do you think i write in fiction? i ask.

Source: Poetry (September 2022)