Koh Buck Song (b. 1963)

1. BIOGRAPHY

2. CRITICAL INTRODUCTION

3. SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

4. SELECTED POEMS

• A Brief History of Toa Payoh

• Wayang Kulit

• Moose-Hunting, Canadian Rockies

• Close Quarters, Chinatown

• The Fragrance of Lallang

• Corridor, Bukit Merah

• Merlion: Strike One

• “shoring” Singapore

SELECTED POEMS

The Fragrance of Lallang

“the more we sweat in peace,
the less we bleed in war”:
so the motivational slogans sell
a logic you can almost smell

summon up a nose for aggression
to spill blood (in the imagination),
for training is most realistic when
it comes to the aroma of anguish

as overrun objectives are re-obliterated
by monsoon bombardment,
dead prone after fire and movement,
we take in the fragrance of lallang

but so strong is exertion’s scent,
it conquers all whiff of wonderment

by Koh Buck Song
from From Boys To Men: A Literary Anthology of National Service in Singapore (2002)

SELECTED POEMS: “Corridor, Bukit Merah” >