I met Ng Yi-Sheng at a café in the middle of the day. That evening, he would be held hostage completing the short films that would screen at the launch of his first published book of poetry, Last Boy, the next day. Ng has become something of a minor celebrity since the release of SQ21: Singapore Queers in the 21 st Century. Although a project launched by the local counselling and support group, Oogachaga, SQ21 was eventually carried out and written by Ng, an outsider to the organisation.

Last Boy is a collection of poems that Ng has accumulated since his undergraduate days at Columbia University in New York . Ng says that the book can be described as anything from queer literature, because its contents are largely about the negotiation of same-sex relationships, but also as Asian Diaspora and emigrant literature. A number of the poems, he admits, are to boys that he became involved with whilst in New York . In Gignomai, for one, he waxes endlessly about a boy named Toby.

Unlike a lot of gay poetry, however, Ng believes that his is affirmative and unapologetic. This is part of a new wave of gay writers who are quite open about their orientation, and write unabashedly and without self-loathing about their own personal experiences and thoughts. He refers to poet Koh Chee Leong as an example. Koh was barred by the Media Development Authority of Singapore from reading his piece, Come On, Straight Boy, in public during the recent Indignation season. In the poem, Koh taunts a heterosexual boy to “make gay love” with him. Ng, of course, refrains from making such bold commentary about homosexuality and gay-straight relations, as it were. He does pay homage to different poets who have been said to be gay, lesbian or bisexual in Hymne in which lines from different poems are stitched together to create a new poem. What he does succeed in with Last Boy is integrating his sexuality quite seamlessly and organically into his work.

For Ng, the poems in Last Boy trace his reconciliation with his sexuality. It also speaks about his being influenced by the cultures that he has encountered whilst overseas. The title, Last Boy, was supposed to reflect the sense of innocence and openness of a child as he approaches new concepts and new ideas. He admits to having something of a Peter Pan complex. In Last Boy, he makes reference to science and astronomy, ancient myths – going back and forth exuberantly across various fields of specialization.

Sometimes, the work speaks more about the writer than the writer would care to admit about himself. Ng spoke about a sense of playfulness and affirmation in his poetry. What one finds in the work is instead a profound sense of unspeakable loneliness and isolation. Last Boy seems to exist in its own universe – in a galaxy far away. The language is fluid and spectacular, but its centre of gravity exists in an alternate dimension. There is a mature mind that seems to indulge behind a façade of unfounded youthfulness.

In Ng’s use of the viewpoints of different and famous people, one senses an individual trying on different skins almost as if he were uncomfortable in his own. The wide-ranging and fairly obscure vocabulary that Ng adopts tells of a writer who is still in search of his own set of references and grasping from many cultural and traditional sources in the process. This makes the overall impression of Last Boy as that of a journey across the planet – sometimes light years away – in the shoes of a cartoon character that has jumped out of the box and is finding his way back to the Looney Tunes lot. In this, however, there springs some truly original and breathtaking pieces such as Virgo and kami/kaze: a correspondence.

It is contradictory how Ng wishes to be accessible and describes himself as being heavily influenced by 17 th century writers such as William Shakespeare, and yet comes across abstruse at times. Within the community, Ng is himself a bit of an oddball, often showing up at events in the strangest of garbs. His signature piece for the Indignation season was a rainbow flag worn as a toga. Last Boy has received only good responses so far, even though a fair number have confidentially admitted to having found the work at points impenetrable.

Ng’s other work, SQ21, has been climbing the local bestseller list for some time now. After a run of sheer optimism from the community, there has recently begun some contention about how justified it is to elevate the individuals in the book who have volunteered to come out so publicly. Even Ng admits that for him, coming out isn’t necessarily a spectacular thing. Still, he feels that SQ21 is a way of making the larger part of society aware of what gay people go through all the time and he is proud of his involvement. The book, he said, was written for the straight audience. In fact, he is ecstatic that he and the contributors of SQ21 have been invited to read at the Bras Basah outlet of Popular Bookstore, a chain known more, as Ng writes on the SQ21 blog, “a s a family thrift bookstore where you can buy your stationery and exercise books before the school semester begins.”

I attended Ng’s launch at the Singapore Biennale Tanglin Camp exhibition site last Friday. The event was a wonderful and intimate affair with Ng performing some of his unpublished works while his enigmatic publisher, Enoch Ng of Firstfruits, stalked about in the background. The readings were endearing and heartfelt, as was Ng himself – visibly nervous with excitement – his sister in the front row assisting him with the lines that he would miss or trip over. With friends and family watching while Ng channelled his seemingly unending source of enthusiasm into each performance, one feel’s like one has stumbled upon a child’s birthday gathering and they were about to bring out the cake. Interestingly enough, Ng revealed that his platoon mates named him “F12” during national service, because he looked “fucking 12 [years old].”

Ng would like to have a balanced review of SQ21 put out. For Last Boy, one gets the sense that Ng would appreciate an objective point of view as well. As long as SQ21 remains something of a sacred cow within the community, such a review of SQ21 is not likely to be forthcoming. Individuals such as myself have greatly enjoyed Last Boy and have no qualms taking in the onslaught of pan-ethnic and -cultural allusions and images used therein. However, few seem willing to address the fact that Last Boy, a book that the writer himself hopes could be addressed to the mass market, would be – I imagine – an inscrutable read for the man on the street. No one denies that Ng has a keen and deft understanding of language. As for an understanding of his audience, I believe he has a following, but perhaps not as broad as he would like it to be. Whether he goes more mainstream down the route of a Warhol, or hone his own, unique voice – which I would personally like to see – I think it would be brilliant to find out how his work develops from here on.

Author's bio: Having worked previously as sub-editor (albeit, effectively editor) at a small and limited circulation publication, Kerbing Lee feels that it is time for him to propagate his wise and omniscient views on a larger stage. When not penning down his ever-incoherent thoughts, Lee can be found running like a big, sweaty ostrich around the vicinity of Holland Village, or capsizing kayaks along the far-from-crystal-clear waters of East Coast Park.

Ng will hold another launch at the Singapore Art Museum this Friday, 27 October, 7pm , at The Cube. If you would like to find out more about this event, please click here.