Co-option

65th birthday for our late mother, 3 years hence

Over land they came
Their peoples & possessions on the move
And we greeted them with spears
Cut down these damn invaders in their tracks
But they eventually found area to settle

Across seas they arrived
Their scouts on lookout
But with fire we met them
Burned the intruders to cinders & ashes
And still they came to reside the region

From the skies they soared in
The best of them calling from the air
And we blasted at them with glee
Smithereens would scatter all round
Such that they became our neighbours

Out there in space they dropped down
Their spores dispersing through our territory
And we could not remove them any more
Got into every nook, cranny, corner & place
So now we've to be blended as one

Such is the urge that we call cosmos
The seeds of the same turn diverse into distinct
But the different, alien keep coming home
Until at the end we admit each other
And collective ultimately strengthens individual

A bit about why I wrote this.

Interim evaluation

our late mother would have been 65 today, 3 years on

They say time heals all wounds
Though over over 3 years, I'd to heal mine
And yet scars ever remain
trauma's still in residue
Not just from grief
but lingering from misplaced childhood

Perhaps I'm still so juvenile
A perfect picture of parents which never was
How can I
now one myself
reflected every day in the eyes of our 2 own
Reality should have taught realism

And yet...
This was not the road either of you envisioned
for so much pinned upon so much in firstborn
And now you can manipulate no more
I use my own hands now
My legs walk of their own

But remember
You left another younger
to also chart destiny
Where proud, remains strong
But who answers the hollow echoes
in the night, in the lone, in the far?
How do I, as the elder,
ever adequately offer bridging
which never quite really was?

As we've ever before
This is our spirit of tribe
Whatever we can, must, will

Have a good rest tonight, our dear hearts
For your dawns anew, shall reawaken what you long lost
In this present past

A bit about why I wrote this.

photo: Mountain inside water, silhouettes in liquid glass

18:52, October 24, 2006
Vivo city, Singapore


If this centre was a sand-sink,
and the hovering ghosts but a grave of watery reflection,
would you then confess,
that you attempted to climb its sandy slopes,
or felt bewitched by signs of a nether realm?

A bit about why I took this.

Our products in every home

These days, human existence is inseparable from Ubiq branding.
Most crucially, one breathes Ubiq purified, energised air everywhere, on one's bed, in the commute, even in the toilet (deodorised and naturally perfumed, of course!); in fact, from one's first baby cry to one's final death gasp.

And what about Ubiq water?
It has become the only source from all drinks are made, yea, even the so-called sky-juice itself (which is no longer gathered, falling from the sky, for obvious reasons; but please, read on).
In fact, every other source found in the outdoors and the wild, has never been more dangerous historically for bodily consumption into ourselves!
So, as we stay within our cities, and once off the streets, within our homes, we remain perpetually grateful for the countless fluids which Ubiq supplies to our every need & indulgence.
One's wines are constituted from Ubiq; so are the soups; and what is that you flush & shower with?

Skip the stale facts that Ubiq is also in computers, TV, songs, mobile phones, clocks and every conceivable home & industrial-grade appliance.
Do you realise that Ubiq, as human civilization's most monolithic global corporation, cares for each individual?
Blood pressures are silently monitored; blood sugars invisibly watched.
Genetic cancer markers are fastidiously noted, and citizens are informed of approaching risks and recommended measures.

In fact, Ubiq today really defines the totality of one's mortal existence.
With its full employment of all who are even conceivably human, Ubiq provides from foetus to the venerable, and has become the core foundation for this planet's billions, as we enter yet another exciting new century ahead.

Ergo, all hail Ubiq. Down on your frail knees.

A bit about why I wrote this.

photos: Rich red for a green tropic

17:47, April 16, 2007
Bishan bus interchange, Singapore

Nature...


... 'midst urban buildup

A bit about why I took these.

Lonely post watch

Halloween
witchin' times approachin'

I mentioned to you before, that even in this place of packed millions, congested shopping malls, and stuffed transport hubs, one can be alone amongst the thronging crowds, making one's way quietly in daily life, another boring typical hardly noticed, mostly ignored, quickly forgotten amidst existence.

You would likely not have believed that I would change so, after choosing to, until this; not with the advantages of education, and the accompanying economic status supposedly entitled but also expected of me.

But, you see, and the story repeats itself countlessly again, I was never meant to be typically someone else's description, even a someone that formed the ever-invincible majority of a population, of society.

I cannot be amongst the proud, even arrogant, icons of 'success', for my small self-esteem could never sustain the lofty pedestals erected by overbearing confidence and hard opinion.
I've been realising too, that the 'rewards' you dangle out to me -- including house, cars, prestigious offices, glamorous assumption of another's civilisation & culture, and the power to invalidate others' lives -- do not rejuvenate me, but rather weigh me down with a dozen white elephants.

For I was a village child, a small-town boy, in delighted love with life simple & honest, before I was swept up and supposedly elevated into the mighty echelons of the instructed and the respectable.
And now, in my older husk of 4 decades, I return, if only mostly in mind, to the undying land of tranquil light, where every effort satisfies this lifetime, like the perfect taste of a sweet dessert in childhood, which is now mostly lost in the ageing years.

Please, so many of you, enjoy this post-modern prosperity of the new century, sloughing with deepening pride in the enduring architecture we, or rather our forebears, wrought from the fallow & seeming nothing of the original good earth.
I would remain amongst you all, a relic of the past, a bridge into the present.
And of the future? A herald abiding?

A bit about why I wrote this.

Cosm: micro, macro

Halloween
nighty night

Your existence was everything to you
Larger than even life
Vaster than the universe

But from outside, we only saw
You, mere bit within mega-trend,
Utterly controlled by mainstream momentum, the rush of masses

And as you died,
mutilated, drained, blown up,
Your whole wide world came all crashing down
But to us looking in --
your brief, tiny existence merely snuffed out --
You were but fulfilling your mundane role
in the greater scheme of things

You were hailed, vowed to be forever remembered
By everyone 'round you, as far as eyes could see
But your civilisation has since fallen
Your people long faded
Your memory failed & forgotten

And so Oblivion
the real sleep
is your true legacy
And Void
the overarching reality
remains your true home

Did you not know
your eternal now
was your best timeless distinction?

A bit about why I wrote this.

photos: Papa, mama, little one

Halloween
dead of morning

10:57, July 24, 2007

northwest tip of Langkawi island, West (Peninsular) Malaysia
abroad the Superstar Virgo

A bit about why I took these.

Chameleon

fiction

The obdurate woman, cold-bloodedly intent on completing her mission, arrived with her partner, the affable man, at the Easy Exchange trading house.

"Such banal obsession with profit," she remarked with repressed, chilling fury as both surveyed the scene.
"The preoccupation with fleeting, virtual gain is so noisome."

"Let's not exacerbate this already tricky extraction operation, love," the jovial man responded, his face sincerely beaming with a warm smile, "although, after all, it is a misnomer to call this place so, for what it really is."

To which the only reply for him was a lackadaisical hauteur, as her mental tentacles darted forth to ensnare the thinking processes of a money-grub nearby, trying to skulk away, its rudimentary instincts sensing something was not right about this duo.
It could not escape, as she peeled off its carefully wrapped layers of prepared deceit and contrived misdirection.

*Show me, younger female,* this marble-faced agent prodded her quarry as she gave recognition to the unsuccessful evadee, *all the social connections you are cogent of, so that their threads may lead back to your leadership and its... heart.*

*I'm but a lowly supervisor,* came the irritatingly squeaky mind-echo, *only traversing the lowest echelons of..EEEEE!!!*
The junior executive was punished with severe nerve pain, for trying to dissemble against the unyielding woman.
Her jolly compatriot verbally went "Aah...", as he cheerfully noted the all-too-common initial next-response of their captures, and the futility of opening tactics as these.

Before the junior grub could once again coherently use her brain, it was blasted with a blinding whitewash, making even hard woman and soft man reel from the psychic collateral.
It reduced the unfortunate little person into an optimally functioning zombie, and she started going off, resuming her ultimate purpose as a cog in the wheel, a gear in the box.

It was his turn next.
The irrepressible man stepped sideways to more squarely face off the owner of the establishment, who presently glowered as obstinately, as the woman who hurt his employee had been callous.
And this boss could estimate that the far greater danger would come from her male co-operative, and so he steeled himself for an insidious assault, right here on the floor of his premises.

So the smiling man began his pleasant & voluble greeting:
"So nice to meet you again!
Thank you for unknowingly providing us, on the previous occasion, with basic and not-so-useful data, which your company is so adroit at gathering.
Now we'd like more, but of the core, critical and world-changing type, as carried by you and your most senior management board.
Just hand it over and we'll all be merrily on our way, about our own work."
And this ended with a wholehearted grin.

And the owner of Easy Exchange concluded that he could trust this well-mannered guy, even with surly companion thrown in.

A bit about why I wrote this.

photos: Rich yellows suspended with a smatter of reds

16:06, September 3
Botanic gardens, Singapore

A bit about why I took these.