Siapa sangka dari sejuta Insan yang ada di bumi Kita harus ketemu jua Dua jiwa, hati terpatri. Dari awal engkau ragui Apa erti hidup bersama Syak wasangka kita lunturi Yakin hati berjalin cinta Apa maksud hidup berliku Sunyi jiwa terpadam kini Shair hidup memuji kamu Redup hati damai abadi.
On Language
Our Language is our fam’ly tree
The ties that build affinity
With words traversing waves of thought
The gap between us fades to naught
Out of the kiln, the words that build
Tribes, cities, armies, courts and guilds
Cementing ties of human hearts
Foundation for the sciences, arts
Thus Language forms the grounding strong
For human life, its wax and throng
To depths of seas and heights of space
Its thrumming drives the human race
Alas its boon hides darker tones
For language also marks the zones
Between a commonwealth of us
Against the others we distrust
Without a common lingual sphere
Communities cannot cohere
From babel curse of estranged tongues
Flows mistrust and committed wrongs
So you may think ‘tis insensate
For nations to compel, dictate
One Language to unite them all
Must we be caged in one tongue's thrall?
Such is the fate of nations blessed
With populace diverse, now pressed
Into each other's common fate
Be it with joy or teeth agrate
This babel curse need not be rued
Variety is a gift imbued
Unto those nations such as ours
Rejoicing in our hundred flowers
A common language bridges, brings
The people all together, wings
Of peace take flight in concert when
Our hearts unite in common ken
And that one speech need not efface
The shared melange of varied race
That makes up nations on this earth
Where each one owns their human worth
So let us celebrate, rejoice
Humanity in one shared voice
With pride our anthem loudly sung
In warp and weft of one shared tongue.
On Waking Up
Some fine morning You will wake up Like from a dream And realise that All the trappings of your life That nice condo The fast cars The fancy things Never really mattered And what you thought was important That big job That bold business card The numbers you had to hit They were mere details Necessary perhaps, at some point But never truly sufficient And what really mattered was How you were loved How you loved in return The blessings you had And how you showed gratitude for those blessings I pray we wake up soon I pray for me, and for you.
On JJCM
Over steaming bowls Of pulled noodles, we forge this Bond of brotherhood.
Tentang Subuh
Jerit kokok tegas bergema
Kicau burung memujuk rawan
Hening pagi menggamit mesra
Aku sujud padamu Tuhan
On Heaven’s Tears
Thunder roars in the Sky as heaven's tears fall on The dark grey tarmac.
On Dark Judgment
These brooding clouds, they
Gather in dark judgment like
A murder of crows.
On Oiling the Machine
Line them up as I
Hand out env’lopes of cash; I
Buy votes with a smile.
On Baharis
I barely knew you
And I knew almost nothing of
When and how you were born
Or who your parents were
Or how you got here
Or how you found yourself being
A young bride in a strange land
Surrounded on all sides
By people who did not love you
And did not care that you were barely loved
I barely knew your life
But I know that in the young years
Of my own life
You loved me with the fierce tenderness
Of a lioness, claws and all
Maybe they never loved you
But you had love abundant
Your love, transcendant
For me, for us
On Those Drops of Jupiter
Did you fall for a Shooting star? You left - I know Now that it's your loss.