Ping Yi works in public service, and writes poetry, fiction and travelogues. His work has appeared in Litro (Editor’s Pick), London Grip, Meniscus, Defenestration, Short Humour, The Shirley Society and trAce, and is forthcoming in La Piccioletta Barca and Dreich. Ping Yi is from Singapore, and has also lived in Cambridge, UK, and Boston.

We Have No Policy on Moonlighting

A henchman writes a poem
when he’s not too busy henching
in his slick-black armour,
when Boss is not having a Big Idea
out on the Arctic tundra.

They said the terms were good – ignoring
black eyes from Jackie and Michelle,
flesh wounds from Chuck and Arnold –
those are lousy, but time enough to draft
at the guardhouse and on patrol.

He scrubs his poem single-handedly
when Doc and the cleaners are done,
erasing adverbs, verbifying nouns
trying to show and not tell; then 
hurries to board the ’mersible

half-dozen heroes clinging outside,
yet worrying about line breaks
he sees not. Grammarly hangs as
they dive dive dive, klaxon chiming
with rejections in his inbox.

Awash on atoll, Henchman lies still,
moon bathing the Showdown, fisticuffs
afly with clock ticking away;
deadlines overrule bosses so
he must write now, and die another day.