What Is It To Write?

(for Anna)

Felix Cheong Seng Fei

It is not a vacation
from your life
when you weary of meetings and rain,
waiting for the bus
and cursing your luck.

It is a vocation
that curses your life
and can't wait for luck
but must meet head-on
the bus weary and rain.

It is not to scribble
a granted sky
by a tree
in the evening park
with your dog running free.

It is to run the dog inside,
scribble the evening
into the sky and park
your tree between the granted and the free.

Published in Temptation And Other Poems (1998)


Postcolonial Web Singapore OV Singaporean Literature Felix Cheong Seng Fei