echo 1. Fireworks
A new day, an infant dawn
Drifting fingers past months long gone
Starbursts in the night sky
A final bid, farewell goodbye
The house doors are unbolted
The garden burrs and thistles molted
The gardener came at three that day
Grass-shorn shot, a demure display
There are people inside the house
Garnet, wine, a bright red blouse
Flutters from corners filled to brim
Cheers and laughs and dinner hymns
It is a celebration of the new year
A chance to remember things held dear
Someone brought Yee Sang and plum sweets
It is raised high, and the past is fleet
The garden laughs amidst the dark
The sky alight with fiery mark
The sounds have scared the cats
Behind, afar, with them I sat
There are gunshots in the sky
The moon is safe, from up high
A pistol crack, a signalled start and finish line
At least I knew back then that my house was still mine
When everyone leaves, at the end
To their home, to life returned, gone to tend
I counted and wished to hold this moment near
Right now, right then, right at this second here
But always a new day, that infant dawn
As with every breath, life carries ever on
The dark subsumed, the golden sun
Of wishes fulfilled, there is only ever but one
2. Gray
I know your voice, by sound, by heart
Held in my palms, from the very start
Of kittens there were three, and then two and one
My little miracle, I loved you as the sun
You are wild and free and unrestrained
Too long within, you did not remain
You leave the gate, slipping the crack
But every day you have always been back
I have closed two upturned bowls upon the table
You have learnt to take. In this, you are uniquely able
You watch my palm and raise a paw, for food high-five
You stretch and scratch and announced when you arrive
You sleep upon the mat outside
The chairs and table on the patio side
At nine in the morning, then four and ten
The opened gate, and bowls filled then
That last night, I let you in from the back
You eyed the curtains and then the new Ikea rack
You climbed the steps and upstairs slept
And I on the couch, a loving watch kept
You did not come back the next day
But still I wait and search up ‘till today
There are posters upon the nearby streets
And for you, I have set aside your box of treats
To my God, I say
Bring her home today
Keep her safe, dry from rain
You did it before. Do it again.
3. Stroke
A month passed by, a solemn mess
I wonder how, and yet still held less
The fleeting flurry of a dandelion’s seed
But at noon stroke, as life proceed
I came home late and went straight to bed
I wish I had said goodnight instead
But I am gone again, the next day
With classes and clubs, and did not stay
I laugh and smile, without reason I learn
It made no sense how fast that tide did turn
I wait to go home at nine at night
Sat next to the column beneath the college light
Three things I plead, never again-
The crack in my father’s voice.
The silent house.
My own wretched thoughts.
It is strange, how quickly rendered void
All the things once occupied and enjoyed
I think- I think to drown in this way
In that pool of words I cannot say
There is no rhyme and reason
No remote chance of a single sentence
Misshapen puzzle pieces-
Of someone I love and the suffering of a stroke
4. White Lights
I learn the route to the hospital bed
The corridors, the elevators, then straight ahead
It passes by, a faceless crowd
Reflecting me, and mine in that shroud
She cries the first time she sees my brother and I
I speak in broken Malay, the only way that I can reply
I hold her hand, but she cannot feel it yet
I see the tubes and pain in her eyes, the diagnosis not set
At the food court between visits
Crowded around the single bed
A steady flow of visitors
Still my grandmother cries, tears shed
5. Darkest Thoughts
There is a hole inside of me
A scarring, ache I cannot see
I know the taste of salt and tears
And I play host to a sea of fears
I have tests to complete
I push and rush and cannot eat
I blame myself, that whispered guilt
And my world remains at its shaken tilt
It burns, that anger, as the crowd passes
In class, in restaurants, upon the streets
It is wholly unfair, and yet I wonder
Their rotating axis while mine is torn asunder
It is difficult to breathe, I think
I do not know how far it may sink
I have to be grateful now, for what is left
But this sentiment feels oddly bereft
I need to wake up but it isn’t a dream
I exist within this span, as faint as it may deem
The world is fixed when I close my eyes
But I am awake, and it is a wistful tune of lies
6. Static
There are footsteps in the house once more
Uncle, aunts, cousins and all, as before
My brother falls sick, and then I
It’s bad, and I despise the reason why
I cannot stand the smell of food
It wafts, leftovers from the downstairs mood
I can hear the laughs and smiles and exchange
The pieces of a new life starting to arrange
My grandmother is home once more
With a routine that’s a farce at playing as before
She cuts her hair, and relearns to speak
I wish I could be just as strong, but I am weak
There is a crack upon my heart
In two shards, it threatens to part
It stains a blemish, a mark, chalk ink
I do not know what to think
To myself, a lullaby
That this too shall pass
As those miles to go before I sleep
As those miles to go before I sleep
7. Faith
I cannot control the tilt of the earth or the sun
Nor the stars or dust or any other one
And so I pray, with knees to the ground
And find that its comfort is all the more profound
I am hurting and lost and uncertain
But I can stand, with my burdens cast
I do not know what day or dawn would bring
If it is a summer or winter or autumn spring
But on the seventh day, the risen sun
The promise, a hope, a victory done
And so to this I cling with all my heart
As I should have done from the very start
Three months ago, I held the world
How quickly like petals lost unfurled
To my cat, I say come home one day
My grandmother, and I dare to think it will be okay
Written By: Trishta
Edited By: Ashely
