Assigned Readings
by Ping Yi
What does a librarian pack? she wonders, for after the apocalypse, that would steel and bolster, fuel and salve fractured lives, lost souls. She barely had a minute, skipped the tablets, grabbed birthday candles, matches from clubs a lifetime before – room in her satchel for three books, five.
A fan rattles overhead, in the old classroom, a stump of wood by each mattress. On hers: A Canticle for Leibowitz as guide, Siegfried Sassoon et al to cauterise and euthanise, two Tolkiens one prayer for eucatastrophe – her light against the horrors ahead. Some fool punk tried to come after her books – she gave him eleven stitches, nearly took off his right hand.
Ping Yi writes poetry, short fiction and creative nonfiction. After a three-decade detour in public service, he has resumed his lifelong interest in speculative, humour and travel writing. His work has appeared in Orbis, Litro, London Grip, Meniscus, Harbor Review, Vita Poetica, Litbreak and ONE ART, among others, and is forthcoming in The Stony Thursday Book. Ping Yi lives in Singapore with his spouse and their son.