Thursday, April 7, 2016

SingPoWriMo 2016 - Day #7

SingPoWriMo 2016 Day #7

I wrote this in response to a prompt at a poetry site, Poets United. The theme was 'Citizenship'. :)



what have i got myself into?



citizenship


we were singing Negara Ku
in the mornings at school
happily swapping colourful stickers
of fishes and hornbills and flowers
then back to the playgrounds
trying to maim each other with hantam bola.
do we children understand then
when the adults talk urgently
of Konfrontasi and commandos
and a bombing in Orchard Road?
or the race riots that started at
the Gasworks, Chinese killing Malays
and the Malays hitting back?
do i not have Malay friends in school?
do i understand all these, a ten year old,
running barefoot, flying kites
catching fishes in drains?
and one day they said they saw a man
cried on tv and said we were on our own
and that night after the news
i saw that haunted look in the eyes
of my parents

it was like the end of the world

we no longer sing Negara Ku
and a new responsibility was
suddenly thrust upon us

Majulah Singapura!



07/04/2016
**********




© cheong lee san ( dsnake1 ), 2016

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