Literature poetry

We don't care: we like to speak it leh;

When we end with lor, hor, lah,

People say our English kana-sai

Why do they care? Hard core kaypoh-

Bo dai chi cho.

It got rhythm- like when you say

Who pass urine in the lift? Chau si!

Aiyah; Chau Ah Lian; Chau Ah Beng; Chau Buaya;

Chau Ah Kua; Chau Mamak; Chau kayu; Chau Goondu-

Who else?

It got reason- like when the secretary say

You hold on arh, he's on another line;

So you wait for him to finish- wah piang, talk

So long, boey tahan, some more I kena

Scolding from boss for wasting time.

We say sorry sorry sorry to make sure we are:

So pai say, we have to repeat two, three times;

Then say excuse! When we overtake or cut in-

Only once. Short cuts must be short and sweet,

If sometimes we cannot cheat, so chia lat

No lubang; so teruk. Kiasu cannot lose,

Kiasi cannot die; machiam machiam words

We also try. Proper English? So lecheh,

So correct, so actsy for what? Wah lau,

Already got your meaning before you finish!

Vegetable Aimal, Mineral, Abstract:

It makes all this rojak, chickenfeed.

Hands all over the place; poke here, touch there,

Growing only like a samseng kia.

People cannot control, also cannot compare.

No class Singlish here to stay,

No big shot can have his way

With how people talk, what people say.

Rules are rules: our bo chap mouth refuse

To listen, follow or to choose.

- Leong Liew Geok

Summary:

I think the writer is talking about the typical Singaporeans these days as many are relatable to this poem.They speak ‘Singlish’ as they find English hard to speak and that speaking in ‘Singlish’ is easier,thus the writer is telling us that this is typical Singaporeans’ attitude about speaking in English.

THE SNEEZE

That hawker there,

Selling mee and kway-teow

Is prosperous, round,

Quick moving

With practised grace

He blows his nose,

Tweeks it dexterously, secures complete evacuation

Then proceeds to comply with the slogans,

The injunctions on the need to

 

Keep Singapore clean --

Keep Singapore germ-free

Keep Singapore ...

 

By wiping his fingers thoroughly on his apron.

He is not going to dirty the drains,

Clutter the spittoons.

he obeys the law,

Deals with his cold seriously.

 

If you sneeze after a meal

Of mee or kway-teow

It is really the steaming-hot soup,

The chillies and pepper that discomfort you.

Edwin Thumboo

Summary:

The writer is trying to tell us that everyone has a part to play in making Singapore a clean place and just one person can stop Singapore from being a germ-free place.

ULYSSES BY THE MERLION

I have sailed many waters,

Skirted islands of fire,

Contended with Circe

Who loved the squeal of pigs;

Passed Scylla and Charybdis

To seven years with Calypso,

Heaved in battle against the gods.

Beneath it all

I kept faith with Ithaca, travelled,

Travelled and travelled,

Suffering much, enjoying a little;

Met strange people singing

New myths; made myths myself.

But this lion of the sea

Salt-maned, scaly, wondrous of tail,

Touched with power, insistent

On this brief promontory...

Puzzles.

Nothing, nothing in my days

Foreshadowed this

Half-beast, half-fish,

This powerful creature of land and sea.

Peoples settled here,

Brought to this island

The bounty of these seas,

Built towers topless as Ilium's.

They make, they serve,

They buy, they sell.

Despite unequal ways,

Together they mutate,

Explore the edges of harmony,

Search for a centre;

Have changed their gods,

Kept some memory of their race

In prayer, laughter, the way

Their women dress and greet.

They hold the bright, the beautiful,

Good ancestral dreams

Within new visions,

So shining, urgent,

Full of what is now.

Perhaps having dealt in things,

Surfeited on them,

Their spirits yearn again for images,

Adding to the dragon, phoenix,

Garuda, naga those horses of the sun,

This lion of the sea,

This image of themselves.

Edwin Thumboo

Summary:

The writer is trying to tell us about his journey to an island has not been easy and he has encountered many things he did not see before like the ‘half-beast,half-fish’

Keith Tan

The Sense of a City

On 5 November 2006, the International Herald Tribune carried an

article entitled “Helping a city stay spic and span.” on the volunteers

who have been culling crows in Singapore, some for as many as 20

years. According to the article, crows cluster near the Somerset

subway station in the heart of the city and find sanctuary in shopping

areas like Orchard Road, that are off-limits to men with guns as “the

risk of cracking a window is very high”.

These are our magi, the men who with their hands

can make the sky go dark with wings

and feathers, vortex of claws and cackles,

fear mixed with tremulous flight.

These are the magi who renew this city,

whose war is never done: cycles of ceremonious

dispensation that can only stay the terrible tide

of darkness. And even these our magi

cannot work their craft in our city’s heart ––

city of glass, mute, stark and mocking,

resistant to the radical re-interpretation of magic.

What happens if we melt the glass away?

What happens if we clap our hands to wound

the glass to create a space for magic

and the spontaneous lifting of hands

in surprised praise and supplication,

the tremulous poise of an uncertain city––

city of glass, city of magi,

city of birds whose encircling flight

reminds us of our own?

Summary: I think this posm is trying to tell us that this is a city of helping people to stay spic and span

Eileen Chong

Singapore

So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.

The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald

The driver, my friend, squints into the rain.

We took the wrong turn-off but Singapore

Is so small it doesn’t matter where you go.

She doesn’t know Change Alley. The new hotel

lies over Clifford Pier. I see the ghosts of red lights

at the harbour. I hear long-dead horses stamp and pull

at their tethers as wagons are loaded with sacks

swollen with rice, sugar and spices. At Tanjong Rhu

even the water’s edge has shifted. Yet a memory

of my great-grandmother’s benevolent, sepia face

swimming out from between jars at her shop remains.

I have her jade earrings now, deep green cabochons

gripped by gold teeth, mounted on stems that pass

through my flesh and hers at once. Tomorrow,

my grandmother turns eighty. For now, I wear the ring

I chose for her: a bezel-set sapphire surrounded

by diamonds. It’s not easy to find good jade

in Australia, much less old jade. The car stops

outside the botanical gardens: a fine cloud mists

the crown of trees. I watch the glossy streets and see

myself aged three, seven, twenty. It’s as though I can never leave.

Summary: The writer is talking about how small Singapore is and how everything is connected together.  He remembers small details about his grandmother and he wishes that he could grow older

Koh Jee Leong

Going Home from Church in Bus 197

Going home from church on bus 197

I thought how quickly new thoughts of heaven

Transubstantiate into old residue

I looked around. There were only a few

fellow travelers, eyes free of vision.

Heavy heads lolled in humble submission

To heat and dust. The mind recognises

In an instant, immune to surprises.

Its failure to connect dust to sleeping dust.

I thought, people are still people, and rust

Still rust. steel still steel; there is nothing new.

The bus rattles its metal cage and a queue

Of Thai workers stumbled, with careless eyes.

To the back seats. One, of the largest size.

Jabbed the window with insistent finger

And rapid mouth, sharp verbal reminder

Of their difference. The youngest replied,

His smile in his voice. A third supplied

A joke; all laughed, even the quiet one

In the corner. Touched with the light that runs

Across the ridges of their faces. I say:

Why do these men, living between narrow days,

Catch the sun of a passing moment and

Make me feel the alien in my own land?

Summary : I think that the writer is saying why people of his own race cannot get along well while other people of different races accept their differences and get along. They go to church although they are of different races and accept each others nationality.