Featured Poet: Winnie Chau

Eyewear is pleased to welcome Chinese poet Winnie Chau (pictured) to these pages this Friday, on the cusp of her 27th birthday this Sunday (she was born in 1984).  Chau comes from Hong Kong. She graduated with an MA degree in Creative Writing from Kingston University, where I was glad to be her tutor. She has been writing for different English arts and lifestyle magazines in Hong Kong. She is also a theatre and dance critic.  I find her work rather brilliant and delightful, and look forward to her debut collection, when it comes.

The Finger-biting Girl

               

f

is the ph-

one-

me she flares a fervent fondness f-

or, a faint favouritism.

but finking, no thinking,

about thinking about her

filosophical, no philosophical,

fantasies are even more f-

rilling:

“once upon a time

there was a suicidal girl

whose most abominable habit

aside from committing suicides

was biting

her finger

whenever she wanted to die

a little death

just a little

she bit

the thought

of not being here

tomorrow maybe

the next second probably

tempted her

to put the knuckle

of her forefinger

between her teeth

but she didn’t

bleed

she sulked

at the loss (no,

the not-losing)

she hated

the f-word

fate

one day

she woke up

beside a man

she saw him

chewing

her finger

that moment

she stopped

biting”

she finks it’s f-

un entering

others’ stories

uninvited.

she can’t

help!

she bites her finger again.

poem reprinted from The Delinquent periodical (UK) with permission of the poet, Winnie Chau