Bukit Brown (a poem)
0bukit brown
i cheng meng
pre-cheng meng
the tombs well marked
not by colourful squares
not by fuming incense
but by uniform vertical
white stakes shafted
a bit to the left
little men in white
with blood colour numerals
hastily stenciled on
like condemned running dogs
ii 634A
this is grave
to be marked by a used tyre
and untamed creepers
the only one with the suffix A
like an upstairs flat for lodgers
a relation of six three four
an oversight
iii till death
do we part
it had seem not
buried side by side
together even in death
when exhumed
are we in one jar or two
iv riders
the riders thank me
in sharp aussie nasal
as their horses clip-clop by
through ancestral homes
on their way to oblivion
v fairies
two fairies
one the moon the other the star
facing each other
on either side of eng neo
one slightly lilting
right arm raised sleeves flowed down
their almond shaped eyes
with mossy liner
cry
vi punjab
the sikh guards stand erect
wearing crimson turbans
bearing british army rifles
with dark brown handles
neither they nor the little white
dogs by their black boots
can stop the ravage of the
savage logic of progress
vii crouching
a white tiger flanks the right
snarling or smiling
a green dragon on the left
exchanging anxious looks
viii jannie
peck neo ( jannie) lived to thirty nine
died in nineteen thirty three
her husband lived to seventy three
dying six years later
an acceptable math
in pre-war high society
ix come
i come to bukit brown today
quite quite out of the blue
my ancestors long exhumed
and trapped in jars
for those who will soon be
raised and put away
i rue
(3 march 2012 )
Copyright Madeleine Lee
Not to be reproduced without permission
Bio: madeleine lee is an investment manager who also writes poetry. she has published 5 volumes of poetry. she has been sweeping great grand relatives’ tombs there since she was a little kid.
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