the maid

many months ago
on a Sunday evening
eating roti prata
somewhere in sembawang

a few tables away
sat a sri lankan maid
alone
sobbing away

some shop workers
stood around her
listening to her tale of woe
consoling her

she came many months ago
from her home in sri lanka
to work here
friends told her
she could make money here
as a maid

money she needed
for her poor family
a husband who drank day long
and hardly worked
and two young ones yet to school

but her life here
was no bliss
from dawn to night she worked
with nary a pause
sweeping, washing, cleaning, cooking
endlessly
with no minute of rest
and no day of rest
scolded, beaten for mistakes she made
no one told her that a maid here
was really a home slave

uprooted homesick helpless
yearning for her family
she ran away
looking for help
she sobbed

her owners came
hunting for her
took her back
to their home

the maid
a lesser being?

in orchard, an old lady

on a sidewalk along orchard road
sits an old lady, bent over
selling her pocket tissues
amidst hundreds of scurrying feet
of the well-heeled
walking around her
not looking
not buying

one cruel, insensitive cad
calls her
a nuisance
a blight on orchard road

“i need to live
i sell to live
to feed me
what can I do”

“what’s a dollar for my tissues
when you spend hundreds
on your shoes and dresses”

“don’t forget
while you walk shop eat in orchard
while you freely spend dollars
we, poor
still need to live
and eat
and earn cents”

beneath the sodden glitter of the city
the forgotten poor lives
and struggles
to live

Yellow Ribbon in Tatters

some time ago
one authority started
a yellow ribbon project
to help ex-prisoners
get a decent job
money in pockets
for a roof over their heads
and to feed their families

many years ago
once you were a prisoner
meant the end of your life
meant you were branded bad for ever
meant it was tough when you came out
as your id proclaim to all
you were an offender

a week ago
the papers
told the tale of this ex-offender
who went to prison for a small crime
came out
and in no time another authority took away his taxi driver license
saying he was no longer fit to drive one
saying he was no longer safe to society

in one swipe
in one mindless civil servant decision
they took away
his livelihood
without a care

what’s happening?
why are not
our authorities talking to each other
to success the yellow ribbon project

yellow ribbon lay in tatters
for now

A Right

A Right to live
A Right to have food on the table
A Right to have a roof over the head
A Right to learn and be schooled
A Right to hold a job
A Right to be treated when sick
A Right to love whomever one likes
A Right to worship freely
A Right to walk without fear
A Right to live in peace

Regardless of
Who one is
What one is
Where one is

A Right Dwindling
Divisive nations, religions
Barriers, boundaries
Pseudo reigns
Falseness preaches

A Right
Left
Owned
By the many few

Blasting & Cheating

The militants hold their religion at ransom
Distorting holy words
To suit their killings

The young swallow it all
Words, distorted and misleading
Leading them astray
With mindless killing

The young carry bombs onto trains
Thinking they were going to be ok
But blasting themselves
And other innocents to bits

Alas, the young, full of life
were cheated
The young
Should have asked
“Why don’t you get your own sons to carry these?