1 The day of departure is a study in normalcy, with subtle variations. My mother potters across the house in her pajamas, but places a cup of coffee in front of me as I type this. It’s the first time she’s made me a hot drink in a long while, not since the milo waiting … Continue reading Leaving home for the first time at the age of 30

is the fat boy's love. He cannot speak it but, grunting, lards his verses with it. He scratches his arms to bleed the grease, its oily sentiment. At night, he grinds his love into his teeth. The words strain out, are gelatinous, wrung out like an apology for the vessel in which it comes. Because … Continue reading The love that dare not speak its name

I'm presently somewhere in North Wales, a little way from a stunning view of mountains across the Irish Sea. For the past few days I've been at Ty Newyyd, which is the national writing centre of Wales, and former residence of David Lloyd George (also nearby is a bucolic river, overlooked by a very Elven … Continue reading North Wales

I never dreamed I'd live through a small scale moral panic about the territorial behaviour of otters in Singapore waters. For context, a local otter watching group has taken it upon themselves to defend a pack of otters that recently lost its alpha male (the Marina otters) against an aggressive larger pack (the Bishan otters) … Continue reading A crisis of otters

I wrote this in January 2016 for Speakeasy, a spoken-word event run by Pooja Nansi, responding to the theme of "envy". Once, over cocktails and cigarettes, it was laid down to me that a young Singaporean with means should live abroad for a spell before turning 30. I’m 29 this year. I tell myself every … Continue reading New York City Envy

This essay was first published in 2012 on POSKOD.sg A SUBSTANTIAL MAN: Fat and Gay in a Gym Bunny’s World There is, to my mind, a gay man’s debutante ball, except it’s quite DIY. Leisurely, at one’s own pace, coming out can be awkward or beautiful, ostentatious or quiet, but it’s a ritual all the same. … Continue reading A Substantial Man

Five years ago I went through a period of massive weight loss for a whole bunch of apparent reasons, the main one being heartbreak, followed, I now see, by a lack of self-knowledge. There's been a lot of talk lately about the epidemic of loneliness amongst gay men; and my own experience of it has … Continue reading Weight

This, like a few other essays that I've written over the years,was first published on Poskod.sg, We Could Have Danced All Night: Play And the Anatomy of Coming Out[1] The first time I saw strobe lights was at Play. That’s probably not true. But the first strobe lights I truly remember, green lasers that burned themselves … Continue reading We Could Have Danced All Night- Play And the Anatomy of Coming Out

I'm back from a whirling, too-short month away in cold, cold Europe! If you've missed me in any shape or form, here is a roster of events that I'm part of/conducting in the coming warm months (rain? what rain?) Friday, 10 Feb: SPEAKEASY #30: VALENTINE'S DAY EDITION Potty-mouthed poets, lovelorn loners, desultory drag queens, it's like … Continue reading Spring-Summer Collection

Here's a review of The Garden of Foolish Indulgences by Oh Yong Hwee and Koh Hong Teng that I wrote for Art Review Asia. A shortened edited version appears in the journal's Winter 2016 edition. == In Oh Yong Hwee and Koh Hong Teng’s new graphic novel, The Garden of Foolish Indulgences, the Garden in question is Singapore. More … Continue reading Review: The Garden of Foolish Indulgences