For a Wedding

Yong Shu Hoong

It's strange.
I wouldn't have thought twice
about you otherwise.
But when you told me
you got married last month
on Malibu Beach,
I couldn't help wondering
what you could have seen in him,
and a little later
what could have been
between us.
I wonder if you still remember
how we had once shared fries
in a McDonald's just off campus.
Or the time we had driven all the way
to Houston for Chinese food.
We were happy then, weren't we?
In a way, I miss your Beijing accent.
But we both knew it was all platonic.
Nothing actually happened.
And I guess
what I really ought to say is:
Congratulations.

Published in Isaac (1997)


Postcolonial Web Singapore OV Singaporean Literature Yong Shu Hoong