Aku hanya seketul kentang
Yang hidup mudah bersenanglenang
Tiada lantai tiada tiang
Yang ada cuma ketul terlentang
Pandirnya hidup si ketul kentang
Tiada gegas tiada bimbang
Bukannya tolol bukannya bangang
Hidupnya tegap tiada tempang
Jangan dihina si ketul kentang
Aku bukan teladan malang
Cuma menganut hidup tergampang
Aman jiwa dirunut tenang.
On Pitying the Ringgit
Pity the Ringgit,
down to its worst against the
Singapore Dollar.
Tentang Kepenatan
Kepenatan yang
enggan hilang - terjerat
dalam celaru.
Tentang Paman Tua Yang Menyapu di Bahu Jalan
Sang paman tua itu tekun menyapu lantai jalan yang sarat dengan sampah dan deraian harapan Keringat membanjiri dahi sang paman tua melungsuri lembahgaris pada wajahnya yang terbanjir dengan lelah dan selautan kepasrahan Tapi paman tua itu tidak putushenti menyapu jalanbatu itu sedang mentari makin mendaki ke ubun hari.
Tentang Harimati
Akan kunyanyi tralalalala
di harimati mu nanti
memperagakan s’gala amarah
yang telah lama terkunci
Langit bergema falalalala
di harimati mu nanti
malaikat turut raya gumbira
bila kau terbujur sepi
Dengan setiap wahana dusta
penipuan yang bertubi
kau robek musnah perasaannya
kau siat separuh mati
Kini masanya tralalalala
pembalasan yang terindah
t’rimalah habuan yang tergendala
pengabadian tergundah!
On Neverness
I will always remember that evening, humid, balmy you were dressed in white crowned by fiery stars like the most graceful swan that swims serenely in a lake of her own joy. Meanwhile, I am just a speck of sand here amongst these people who love you. And as the crowd rises to its feet in celebration I shove my hands in my pockets and look away for just a brief moment lost in the neverness of us.
On Being Overly Friendly
He shakes her hand, but
does not let go - her smile falls,
her eyes flail wildly.
On Swimming Blind
I dip into the
murky pool - the night is dark
and I'm twice blinded.
On One Hundred Days
One hundred days ago, I started writing again – egged on by some unnameable djinn of my unsatisfied youth. I took pencil to paper (occasionally, but more frequently, digits to keyboard) and started writing again – rediscovering the undulating joys and sorrows of words, like an old sailor rowing his small dinghy past the crags and coastlines that he once knew well.
I say “rediscover”, because for a brief period in my youth, this was all I ever wanted to do – to read joyfully, and to write soulfully: to breathe in the mysteries of the universe, to bask in the crypticism of existence, and to exhale outwards for others whatever small particles of wisdom I was able to assemble from the dustmotes of Life.
What can I say? Many years came in between myself and I – years filled with the longing for warm embraces and silent kisses, for the hollow thrill of rising in the estimation of one’s peers, for the sheer and desperate act of merely staying alive. Many years of wanting to start, some days of actually starting, and on those rare days, being quickly embarrassed into silence by my own sense of futile ambition.
Then one day, I started writing again. And again. And again. Each time, I would tell myself, quietly and firmly: this is for yourself. No one but yourself. Because we are all silently rowing our own little small dinghies in the darkness of being alone – every word, every sentence, every exhalation is a furious defiance of the inexorability of Time, to say I exist, dammit!
I breathe in again. Breathe out. Inhale. Exhale. Repeat, every day, every week, every year, evermore.
Tentang Penggilap dan Pelahap
Kau gilap lencana
pada gril hadapan Alphard yang kau tunggang seharian
yang megah menempikkan "D.I.M.P."
pada sekalian insan kecil
yang menghurung jalan raya
disekelilingmu
dan kau lahapkan
setiap kata puji dan bodekan
orang-orang yang kau pilih khusus
demi bakat mereka
memarakkan naluri takabbur
dihatimu
dan kau sakau
apa yang sempat kau sakau
agar dapat terus berdatukdatin
dengan rakan-rakan taikun dan parasit
yang kau temui di majlis-majlis penuh gah
yang kau santuni dalam laman majalah Tatler
kerana kau mengharapkan
semua nobatsilat itu
mampu mengabui perasaan malu
atas kedaifan jiwa dan kendirimu
dan dapat membuatkan kau lupa
walaupun untuk seberapa lama
bahawa kau juga manusia
yang harus makan dan minum
yang perlu kencing dan berak
yang akhirnya akan mati
sebagaimana orang lain juga harus mati.