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Pearls of Wistfulness

Pearls of Wistfulness

Poetry by Marc Nair
Photos by Daniel Tan
10 July 2018


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They robbed the bank and broke the string

and pearls came tumbling down from their

apartments, perched high on the neckline

of Chinatown’s demure skyline. Here are

leftover notes from an adagio for string

and pearl, things that cannot be easily


packed; the slight of a bannister,

breeze from open windows, the

gradient of stairs to a home.

The photographers enter through

the same hole in the fence. They make

the same vulturine pictures;

the vertical cylinder block

like the interior of a song,

houses, adrift in a tangled nest


of cables, ladders that lead

to the roof, signalling mystery

with warning lights for stray


helicopters or those who have

forgotten home; they find rest

in this pearl, sleeping long in the lee


of the hill. They build a bank and tie

the pearls together again. This time,

they shimmer out of reach.