Birth of a Wrestler, or 2,500 Years of Pankration by Lim Wee Teck
Pizarro versus Atahualpa (1532):
Arms thick with muscle bulge around your neck.
Winner, Pizarro.
Church versus Metacom (1676):
A knee wedged on your vertebra pushes deeper.
Winner, Church.
Clive versus Siraj-ud-Daulah (1757):
Your legs are held in a grip, as you try to flail your torso.
Winner, Clive.
Raffles versus Hamengkubuwono II (1812):
Your intercostals struggle to drag air into your defeat.
Winner, Raffles.
Courcy versus Hàm Nghi (1888):
Your vision dances with stars, the tunnel narrowing to darkness.
Winner: Courcy.
Reagan versus Gorbachev (1991):
Your body is lifted by your legs and blood rushes to your head.
Winner: Reagan.
Bush versus Saddam (2006):
Your skull smashes, your spinal cord snaps under your weight.
Winner: Bush
Trump versus Khamenei (2026):
Lim Wee Teck is from Singapore. He has always loved poetry and language, but has only now been able to find the mind space to write. He is passionate about ASEAN and Singapore creating their own authentic voices in a multipolar world. His poetry has been published on Eksentrika and in Verbivoracious Festschrift Volume One: Christine Brooke-Rose.
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