Lynette Tan Yuen Ling has a PhD in Film Studies and has published poetry, short stories, and children’s books. She is also Director of Studies at Residential College 4, National University of Singapore where she teaches Systems Thinking. 

 

Porous: A reflection on Nissim Ezekiel’s ‘Background, Casually’ (1965)

I don’t come from anywhere anymore

I come from everywhere

and my skin tells me how that feels

stretched so thin, porous

nearly invisible

you don’t see me

you can’t place me

my nowhere place is where I am