Why

Why are we born to die
Why do we love to lose

For the intense joy of both
Fleeting though they are

I cry not for today
But for the tomorrow
That must come

Maybe I will be
All cried out then

Pass

Wear your pass around your neck
Like a leash to the office
Tighten the noose
And slog

Beauty

I get distracted
by beautiful and intelligent
women and men!
There I've said it.

Another one bites the dust

Another one bites the dust
Another book shop closes
Pages fluttering shut in the dust
One last time

The way of borders
Page 1
Closed shut with no new chapter
Lost to e books? Or generations glued tonscreens

A future with no dreams

A future where there are no more dreams
Because people cant imagine anymore

Delhi crime

Powerful series.
About the 2012 violent rape of a girl on a bus.
Shook the world.

The good and bad about the series.

Reviews say this is a love letter to Delhi police.
I understand
The police are portrayed humanely working in difficult conditions insuffiencent funding pressures from political parties and press and public
They work without sleep tracking down elusive criminals

I found myself having new respect for the police. Thankless job indeed.

The flaws are glossed over and could have been better addressed.  Some whitewashing of facts. Like seeing the student protests as annoyances when i believe those protests were instrumental to making the gov and police take rape seriously.

There were reports of a man being robbed on a white bus 2 days before incident. Police did not act. Here they make it seem the man reported the incident only 2 days after the event.

Apparently buses are not allowed to have tinted windows. This was not addressed.

Nevertheless. The show did make me respect the police a little but more. Every thing has blacks and whites.this one showed more whites.

The only darker sides of the police shown were.. police sleeping on the job in other parts of India, some policemen being more concerned about food and exercise instead of the case.

Good thing was the female police officer dcp south. She was super powerful as the lead.
There is a sense too that too much rape happens. They say casually there are gang rape cases everyday. How is this any different.

There are insinuations that the victims brought it upon themselves because they were engaged in PDA on the bus. This might be a fabrication by the film.

She fought back hard. The girl named as deepika in the show. That is not commented on. We get it though. She bit them so they bit her. she pushed them off the boy.

Some unnecessary details like the boy having a girlfriend.  That is immaterial to the case which is about violent rape and murder.

The men were charged and sentenced to death 7 years ago and they still havent hung. What justice is this? 7 years and still alive. God knows what they are doing in jail.

They do not show the rape. Describe it in detail 3 times. Acting all superb.

This world

Is wracked with madness
like killing so many cockroaches
Except we are killing ourselves

During our holiest times
Friday Prayers
Easter Sunday

And the most mundane
Rape on a bus

And at such scale
Gaza

These are our truths now.
The world we live in

A mockery of God
To kill in His house
Taunting Him, showing Him
He is powerless in His own house

Or maybe reinforcing
His house is not external
To churches mosques temples

His house is inside us
And we kill Him methodically
Suicudally
Torturously

Because we can.
Yes we can

Sick of bicentennial

Two hundred years
Seven hundred years
What difference does it make?

As always we clamour
to feel important
Impotent as we are,
making up myths of lions and fish,
a rock now adds to our history.
We fashion it from clay.
Yet
we are nothing
but a grain of sand
under a heaving ocean.
A blimp in time
drawing people to it
to make a home
a stepping stone.
A navel full of people gazing inwards
Saying
I am big
I am old.
I matter
I do

protest too much

This is home
that teaches one to be zen
amid a sea of toys.
Tall buildings and short tunnels
squash our heritage.

Bear no attachment
for places morph
Sinews stretch fold unfold into time
We will be swallowed whole
before we can matter.

Reclaiming

Standing here at Punggol promenade
eyes closed, facing the sea at 8pm,
you hear the waves washing the shores
revising their lines endlessly.

Can you reclaim what was never yours?
What's been taken from under the feet of others
The day will come when the ocean will rise up
Swallow you whole

And these waves will wash new shores

----

Standing here at Punggol promenade
eyes closed, facing the sea at 8pm,
you hear the waves washing the shores
revising their lines endlessly.

Can you reclaim what was never yours?
You know the day will come
when the ocean will rise up,
swallow you whole

and these waves will wash new shores.

----
Standing here at Punggol promenade
eyes closed, facing the sea at 8pm,
you hear the waves washing the shores
revising their lines endlessly.

Can you reclaim what was never yours?
You know the day will come
when the ocean will rise up,
swallow you whole

and these waves will wash new shores.

. The first stanza contains exactly 31 syllables in the form of a prose poem. The first stanza is phrased as imperatives or instructions.

2. The second stanza consists of 14 syllables, broken into 3 lines. The length and subject of each line is left to the poet's discretion.

3. The third stanza consists of 10 syllables, broken into 2 lines of discretionary length. The third stanza is phrased in terms of one or more questions.

To write

Mall prompt. Serene centre or coronation plaza maybe. Or plaza sing.

The Singapore island beach reclamation prompt

Can you reclaim what was never yours?
What goes around comes around
One day ocean  may rear up to take back what is it's own
And our neighbour's may turn us all down coz we dont take no refugees
Standing here at punggol promenade
Eyes closed, facing the sea at 8pm
You hear the waves washing the shores
revising their lines endlessly

The micro horror story
Where lonely people create loves for themselves online complete with pictures
And live a life of augmented reality.
Blurring the lines between real and virtual happiness peace prosperity

Things that made me laugh yesterday

My intern chose a poem for senior minister of state for education to read
It included the lines is my sexiness too much
Do I look like I have diamonds in my groin
Hahahahahah

And my sweet son called me to update me that he was on the trail of some fake news.
He read the papers and saw that a man was reported missing.
In precuous days papers there was no such news this he suspects it's fake news. 
I clarified that he was saying  he thought our national papers was publishing fake news. He said yes. Then I asked what of thisnwas new news. And more news on this emerged over the next few days?
He said hed have to wait and see

So cute! Oh my. My darling cherub on the trail of fake news!

Horror story

That you can create an online persona, complete with pictures, to live a life you cant actually live

My own world

Street names change weekly in random order to learn directions
Picadilly street  changed to pick an idly street
An eggless soya free cake

Ode to idly

Idly oh idly
So white and fluffy
Like a cloud dunked in sambar
You melt in the mouth

Bland to a fault
but so soft
You go with everything
Maybe best with
Spicy rough podi,
with dollops of gingelly oil
How about with
Mint chutney and tomato
Awesome with rasam
Just heaven with chicken curry
Tamarind gravy

And you come in such sizes
As big as a palm
Tiny as a coin
And every size in between

Best for breakfast,
adding light and spring
Perfect for dinner
after a long day or flight
I cant wait
To have you tonight
------
You arewhite and fluffy
Like a cloud dunked in sambar
You melt in the mouth

Bland to a fault
but so soft
You go with everything
Maybe best with
Spicy rough podi,
with dollops of gingelly oil
How about with
Mint chutney and tomato
Awesome with rasam
Just heaven with chicken curry
Tamarind gravy

And you come in such sizes
As big as a palm
Tiny as a coin
And every size in between

Best for breakfast,
adding light and spring
Perfect for dinner
after a long day or flight
I cant wait
To have you tonight

So what do you do

Your 8 year old says
He can't go for gym
His leg hurts
His throat hurts
He's crying

You know he's scared
Of handstands hand springs
Crazy exercises
The coach

So what do you do
Just what do you do

Parents are supposed to
Teach kids to be resilient
Suck it up and stick to things
Dont let then grow up to be
Strawberries

So what do you do.
What do you do?.

Parents are also supposed
To let kids know they've got their backs
Support them trust them love then
Without the weight of their own
expectations, fears, desires

So What do you do?

Give him a hard time,
Warn him, about the boy who cried wolf
Then hug him, love him
Let it go
And wait for next week.

Punggol promenade

Standing here at punggol promenade
Eyes closed, facing the sea at 8pm
You hear the waves washing the shores
revising their lines endlessly

You've washed these shores since when
When different sounds were your accompaniment
Tigers growling maybe
Not all this restaurant music
Piping happy birthday

Other prompts

1. written in Other pov - maybe milk
2. A new land I discover
3. Awful truths about myself - written in perspective of those i wronged
- twin girls installed at till theybjad tears in their eyes. Today i could be sacked for that maybe
The cow i threw stones at
My mum who'se gift I rejected just to hurt her

4. A ritual that gives me what I want. Now I have to live with it

Monster prompt

Monsters are
Born of good intentions
Growing limbs and tentacles and heads and then brains

Like streaming for 40 years
Compartmentalising
kids Into neat packages

Comparmentalising people
Into 4 races, including Others

What new monsters are we brewing now
With new laws everyday
How deep are we digging.our graves
Bringing back 1984 and Animal Farm?

‐---

Monsters
are born of good intentions
growing limbs, tails, horns, heads
and finally
brains.

Monsters that
pick, sort,
discard.

What new monsters
are we brewing now
through laws

that bring alive the old -
Animal Farm
1984?

We will know soon.
Just give it
40 years.

#spwm19day1 #plscrit #jemstones

Monsters
are born of good intentions
growing limbs, tails, horns, heads
and finally
brains.

Sticky fingers
Grimy nails
Reaching out
over decades
to pick, sort,
discard.

What new monsters
are we brewing
now?

Just give it
40 years
We will know

#spwm19day1 #plscrit #jemstones