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

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of Chinatown’s demure skyline. Here are

leftover notes from an adagio for string

and pearl, things that cannot be easily

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packed; the slight of a bannister,

breeze from open windows, the

gradient of stairs to a home.

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The photographers enter through

the same hole in the fence. They make

the same vulturine pictures;

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the vertical cylinder block

like the interior of a song,

houses, adrift in a tangled nest

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of cables, ladders that lead

to the roof, signalling mystery

with warning lights for stray

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helicopters or those who have

forgotten home; they find rest

in this pearl, sleeping long in the lee

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of the hill. They build a bank and tie

the pearls together again. This time,

they shimmer out of reach.

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