DURIAN PEOPLE

MAY CHONG

We are all a
bit durian:
thoughts and thorns
and shells and hard
hearts, clinging to what
little softness
the world has not stripped away
with flat, terrible
teeth.
 
Some people are
not durian people.
Let them be. You may
yet find ones who love
your singular scent;
the way your thorns catch
the lines of
their palms; the feel
of your flesh against
their lips.
The heat you inspire.
 
Providence guide you
to those who adore
your stateliness, the way you
grow without haste
into your own grace;
the ones who lie awake
laughing to themselves as
the fruits of your labour
make landfall,
like cannons booming
before dawn.

---

May Chong is a 30-year-old digital content writer born and raised in Malaysia who writes fiction and poetry. May Chong's work has most recently been part of Little Basket 2017 and Micro Malaysians (Fixi Novo) as well as inkscrawl vol. 10.