Poems by Etc. Writers
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| Illustration by Daryln. |
The Spark That Grew Into A Fire
By Ashley Tan Jeyin
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| Photo by Lin Zhenming. |
The day began like any other,
Body heavy with sleep as I trudged to school,
Unaware of the fate that would soon take a toll on me,
When announced school would be closed,
We rejoiced,
Surely this was great news, was it not?
What was once foreign became our everyday routine,
Business meetings, classes and work all on a laptop screen,
As we attempted to deal with the sudden change,
The virus that took the world by storm,
Like a spark that grew into a fire,
Trapping us in a spiralling inferno.
For one month I stayed indoors,
As the outside world was dangerous and harsh,
Hidden in the house I lay in bed
As dawn faded to dusk
Stuck in a never-ending loop of dread.
One day blurred into the next,
The possibility of returning became less and less,
Time the only constant,
The world shifting beneath,
Leaving us without a spare second to breathe.
Isolated from friends,
Deprived of interaction,
I’ve forgotten how it feels to have a conversation,
Not with emojis or through a 360p screen,
But face-to-face with real emotion in between.
Secluded from nature,
I’ve forgotten the scent of fresh flowers,
The warm glow of the morning sun,
A kaleidoscope of colours,
The gentle caress of a light breeze,
Roaming through the outdoors for hours.
Mind consumed with a stream of questions,
Questions to which there are no answers,
“When will this be over?”
“Will life return to before?”
“Or will we be confined for yet another year?”
As though the world was put on pause
The very moment all was lost.
We yearn to return to normalcy,
We hold on to hope and possibility,
In spite of the chaos and catastrophe,
We will prevail.
For after the darkness, there is light
After the noise comes peace,
Even if it feels like we’re in a tunnel of despair,
One day we’ll look back and compare,
In hindsight, this would have been just a blip,
A minor crease through space and time.
Though unforeseen and awakening,
Family and friends help make it less frightening,
Ultimately we’ll come out the other side,
And what stands before us will be unity
Worldwide.
The World From Her Eyes
By Afrina Arfa
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| Photo by Lin Zhenming. |
It’s a painful world, she says.
The storm in the sky
The rain that comes with
It’s a painful world, she says.
The judgement in people’s eyes
The whispers that follow after
It’s a painful world, she says.
He meets her eyes
Pouring his thoughts into hers
The world is beautiful, he says.
For the colours breezing through your eyes
And the scents floating through your nose
For your ears that pick up chimes
And the chills when the wind blows
With every entity you find hopeless
There will be two that are with goodness
It’s only a painful world
If you shut one eye.
Dinner Talks
By Jane Law
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| Photo by Lin Zhenming. |
Painful histories can’t be erased
As if it’s a text
Or a waste
People are already vexed
Because what do you do when
The trumpets don’t sound
And what do you do when
The cries are frowned
The world is almost ashed
From the raging fire
Yet the solution is still to bash
Even when life for many lies in lines of dire
When will the unrest
Find its solace?
I look to Yeats,
To only see the ill-fates eightfold
With empty scraps on our plates,
“The center cannot hold”
So, we await
Its certain, deadly fall
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| Photo by Lin Zhenming. |
Anecdote
Dinner Talks is about an imagined conversation with Irish poet, William Butler Yeats who wrote the famed line “Things fall apart, the center cannot hold” in one of his poems in the aftermath of the First World War.This poem talks about the outbreak of non-stop chaos that has been descending upon the world recently. However, the powerful forces we expect to bring order are not taking enough action to put a stop to it even when the lives of citizens are treading on thin ice.
I question when can all of it be over until I remembered the line written by Yeats, ‘the center cannot hold’. For me, it doesn’t just mean authorities are failing in their jobs but like everything else in this world, without support, they will fall one day and the rest will watch.
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