Night Fish by Kristine Ong Muslim

December

This cold has taught me
about the nature of souls.

Although I have known
a long time ago that the body
is meant to be a sieve for
the soul fermenting inside,

I am still surprised by the fog
of breath coming out of my mouth.
So dense. It seems that I am not the only one
who is exhaling in this frozen yard.

Night Fish by Kristine Ong Muslim

Night Fish is a 13-poem chapbook. The poems refer to water, all kinds of water bodies and watery life. Life is compared with the uncertainty of the ocean and how the human mind adapts to it.

A key poem that familiarises the reader to  the whole collection is “Heat Stroke”, a condition where moisture is non-existent and grief has triumphed. Heat Stroke is palpable. We can almost touch it----

We ultimately learn to slice impressions,
separate them according to texture.
Smooth-skinned on top. Rusty underneath.
Grit and cruelty crammed in the middle.
Heat presents itself in the form of waves
melting the world away. Squandering nothing.

In this short collection, each poem captures a universal emotion -- grief, fear of death, loneliness -- and touches us.

The poetic structures is mostly free verse, with the occasional nod to couplets and other nonce forms. There is a strong consistency of voice and hauntingly beautiful repeated imagery. The poems connect to us via doorways, bodies of water, souls, phantoms, fish, hazy dreams. Just reading one of her poems fuels our desire for more. And more!!