Them pearly whites got him smitten,
And his lonely chapter got rewritten.
Done and Dusted.
And at times, I miss you.
I miss how we stumble out of clubs,
Young, intoxicated, and didn’t give a fuck.
I miss the way you say goodbye.
I saw from your eyes,
I know sometimes you lie.
You’ve always fancied me,
You’ve always thought about kissing me.
I feigned ignorance,
I wanted to see your persistence.
You said to me you’re always honest,
But no —
Just this one,
You never would want bluntness.
Sometimes you held my hand,
And I know you wanted to hug.
I could hear you resisting your heart,
I wished you went with your gut.
There were many things strangely accurate.
You were right about me,
But never believed in us.
The number of times —
I bit my lips wishing
Instead it was yours.
The number of times —
You held me up,
Instead of holding me close.
Each time we denied our hearts
From every chance of never being apart.
And still sometimes, I miss you so so much.
Wake Up.
Restrained,
By the thick ropes and chains.
Society,
Is the one that changed me.
Artist,
Was all I wanted to be.
Happy,
Was all I ever seeked.
Money,
They will give when you obey.
Glory,
You get with compassion frayed.
Winners,
Are ones who betrayed trust.
Losers,
Are those who gave too much.
Since when did it become this way?
Since when did we make it this way?
Kinship is soon nothing.
Friendship is soon vanity.
Nature is soon dying.
What about us?
Soon we’ll be alone and obsolete.
Be.
Can’t you see
You should let me be?
Before I flee,
Just set me free.
Held captive by twines of the city,
All we needed was our minds at liberty.
Korea.
Having an extroverted personality, nurturing relationships, being around people and interacting with others come naturally to me. There’s one person though, I was not too sure if I knew her well enough then– myself.
I left work after a hectic work week on a Friday night, my mind was in a whirl, exhausted but also excited. As I was packing my bags, it started to sink in that I’ve booked a trip to Korea 2 weeks ago and it’s going to be the first time I’m going somewhere foreign all on my own. It then dawned upon me that there isn’t anyone to tell you what to do, or how you should do it. That sudden realisation crippled me for a second, then it came acceptance and liberation.
I flew by Scoot. There were rainbow lights in the cabin. “With rain comes rainbow,” I thought. I met a Korean girl on her flight home, she spoke good English. She told me her parents were picking her from the airport and I found myself struggling to remember when I last sent someone off or for received at the airport. After catching a few winks, I alighted. It was dark and the breeze came through the agape section between the aircraft and the land connector. The process at the customs was just as breezy. I stepped out of the airport and it smelt different, it’s not Singapore anymore.
The Korean girl’s family met me, and bought me bubble tea at the airport to welcome me into their country. They dropped me nearer to my new crib, and knowing I had extremely limited conversational ability in Korean, they waited for my taxi to tell him the address. I stayed at Hongdae and it was crowded on a Saturday night with youngsters having chats, laughing and playing outside. They seemed well prepared with beers and snacks. Everything had cheese with it. I got changed and went out. I got a crabstick cheese snack from Family Mart (so I figured they bought all of it from there as well), sat on the bench just like the locals, breathe in deeply and soak up all the moonlight, street lights and the smells of bbq meat. I opened my eyes and this two guys walked by and said hi.
I let out a doubtful greeting.
“Hi?”
“Are you local?”
“No, why?”
“You speak good English.”
“My friends’ coming,” I casually told a lie.
“You want to learn some Korean? We’re both English Teachers here.”
And that’s how I learnt my two life-saving phrases in Korean: “Isseo” means “have”, and “Eopseo” means “don’t have”.
Aliens.
Move in swishes,
Live on wishes.
We are all different –
Yet somewhat alike.
We all love,
We all fear.
Isn’t it strange we don’t care so much about each other?
Isn’t it ridiculous sometimes we’re afraid of each other?
Before the grave,
After all you gave.
We are all the same,
Yet somewhat different.
Isn’t it stupid to compare riches?
Isn’t it dumb to have made someone’s life difficult?
Blessings are the days living,
That’s all I’m really saying.
Be kind,
Be brave.
And soon you’ll find out,
They give our life it’s true meaning.
Fall.
Realised ’twas a bad call,
Following a bad fall.
Passion walked out the door,
We couldn’t do anything more.
Our love was bald,
There’s nothing else worth fighting for.
Slow.
Issues on a roll,
We’re on all time low.
I said,
“There’s still some rice on the bowl.”
He said,
“Don’t let the food run cold.”
Now we will go real slow,
But baby, we will reach our goal.
Sold.
A life of one —
Similar to the life of a gun,
Silence by a bun,
Silent and blunt.
Potential to be done,
Doing actually none.
A life of a duo,
Precious as gold,
You can’t wait to be told,
Gotta’ dare to be bold.
Someone to go to when you’re low,
Watch things unfold — you’ll be sold.
Closer.
Your scent,
The air I breathe.
My favorite temperature,
The heat you emit.
Fondness
Missing you when we’re apart.
But — we’re always apart
Since close is never close enough.
killgwen 