Featured Poet: Winnie Chau

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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

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