<p>notebook coffee fingers flicker<br />
ballpoint scribble absent liquor<br />
comrades vanish doonas beckon</p>
– an empat perkataan perempuan
notebook coffee fingers flicker
ballpoint scribble absent liquor
comrades vanish doonas beckon
steely focus headaches threaten
bleary weary Somnus blunder
muted murmur graveyard slumber
tendrils bramble rousing jerking
sunshine caffeine runners chirping
dawning horror sober sorrow
promise better effort morrow
The empat perkataan (Malay for “four words”) is a 15th century Southeast Asian poetic form, recently revived in Singapore. It is perempuan (“female”) when all rules are followed—four words in each line, with lines following a couplet or alternating rhyme scheme, and each word comprising two syllables.