my daily poem march 17, 2004

yesterday i passed by

my childhood stall by the road;

what an experience it was!

that woman in her 30s i used to see,

now only her creased forehead and face

to add another dimension between us.

how sweet her layered little squarish

suntan cakes still tasted;

those layers that i peeled off

piece by piece to savour their charms.

and as i peeled the women gave me

that more mature and

deeply heartstirring smile

that tore through the distance

between us as if each layer i had peeled carried a story of her own life.

those years of experiences

now seen in phases,

like the layers of her cake.

the child in me leapt up again.

i left behind what

have separated us

to present the innocent smile

we used to give each other.

momentarily we lived

those days when i was a child

and she a young woman.

those childhood years

when we saw people as what they were.

those childhood years

when our smiles, love

were a fountain spring of ourselves

until the days when growing up

added different shades

of feelings and thoughts

to our relationships.

i hate the layer

those creases and wrinkles

laid in me.

i prefer to see them

as a child

where she would probably be

the wise woman in some cartoon film.

how those cakes would never

be the same again.

how i loved those pink and white layers,

the pink and white that had always

carried a fairy tale behind them.


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