Clouds Over Toa Payoh

Two sheets to the wind, one irate 

Auntie flapping across the parkade 

oblivious to the uploading 

gaggle of gawkers enjoying the noon-

tide dilemma. 

Little by little the idea 

I followed across three continents 

settles, the hard excesses of a late last night, 

my interminable appetite for destruction, 

being burned off by the unsparing sun, 

reduces itself to the smallest of equations --

how much am I willing to spend here?

True, the temptation of the crossroads runs through

my DNA, generations of esurient itinerants

have tracked trails to doorways as strange 

as the one I seem so intent on tucking myself inside, 

but, and it’s a big but, the beggar/bugger 

I’ve become, is beginning to wind down --

how much can I afford to spend here?

 

What’s on the menu? -- a wild, exotic 

Laksa, curried yam -- I think I could drown

myself in her buttermilk complexion 

and not come up for a century --

but at what cost?

I have a history to consider: the ulcer of opposites 

attraction to dietary peculiars hasn’t 

been entirely kind -- can the mucosa 

withstand another peptic assault? 

And what about her? What’s the bargain

she’s prepared to make? I doubt 

she’s been to Knittlingen or, blessed 

by les miracles of our lady of the flowers, 

learned the dire arts of how 

Fenrir could be domesticated? Still, 

she seems inclined, ready to roll 

the dice to distant shores, or so 

she says. 

When I spot the rat outside the MRT

my incredulity twists 

into noodle of bewilderment --

how he exists here, 

in this place, butts against 

my hesitation -- I feel 

a certain kinship, the alienation 

of being adrift in a swamp 

too deep, too deep --

  

perhaps. Perhaps I’m not 

too used up to throw away 

just yet.

Ken e Bujold 

Author's Note

for those wondering...it all worked out reasonably well. she hasn't kicked me to the curb yet.

Reviews

[W. Barrett Munn]

Curious how to work this one into the whole as this sounds narrative to me while most others are clearly lyric.

Winston

[Ken e Bujold]

it is. This one will bookend section called Hunger, look at it as a companion piece to Rainy Country. the two sides of commitment, the yes/no dilemma of when do you chose to stay?

[W. Barrett Munn]

Yes. that makes sense. I tjouhhg perhaps the open or close of a section.

Winston