wildscape. literary journal

issue 6

// poetry

Love Is Teaching Your Girlfriend Mandarin
From A Din Tai Fung Menu
by Sarah Ang

“元盅排骨面1，
油豆腐细粉2，
菜肉馄饨汤3”
My tongue skirts around
the ridges of pork ribs;
stutters over
the length of vermicelli noodles;
wraps awkwardly across
pork and vegetable wontons.
In this minefield of pronunciation errors,
tripwires abound,
but you spool out thread to guide me through.

I have told you my secrets,
and you have built me a sanctuary.
Our laughter peals like bells;
my suppressed shame crumpling in on itself,
cast away like fallen flower petals
cascading in the wind.

This, too, is how I learn the vocabulary of you,
fingers tracing each character
in this hallowed dictionary
to form the liquid poetry in your eyes.

Come. Together we will
breathe life into these letters,
fold them into singing sentences,
construct a narrative that spans the sky.
  1. Steamed pork rib soup with noodles. ↩︎
  2. Vermicelli soup with deep fried beancurd and minced meat rolls. ↩︎
  3. Vegetable and pork wontons served in superior chicken broth. ↩︎

about the author // Sarah Ang

Sarah Ang is a writer from Singapore who has won international and national awards for her writing, including first place in the Wilbur Smith Author of Tomorrow Award, first place in the National University of Singapore Creative Writing Competition, first place in the iYeats International Poetry Competition, second place in the Walter Swan Poetry Prize, second place in the Alpine Fellowship Academic Writing Prize, third place in the Ledbury Poetry Competition for Young People, and third place in the Wells Literature Festival Young Poets Prize. Her work has been featured in publications such as Mithila Review, Quarterly Literary Review Singapore, Idle Ink, Alexandria Quarterly, and Eunoia Review, among others.

Instagram: @saraahhndipity
Website