In The Poetry

Don’t smile please

Since the primary school is next door
You can’t help passing the playground
But don’t you smile at the children
Whether a small girl or a little boy
Don’t you even look
You know what people will think
And you really can’t blame them.

What a world we live in! What went wrong?
If there’s another world to come
Let’s hope it’s [...]

‘R-and-R Centre; An Incident from the Vietnam War’ – R-and-R being a “Rest and Recreation Centre” set up in countries near to Vietnam, neutral countries. A short holiday resort for GIs.

R-and-R Centre: An Incident from the Vietnam War

We built a palace for them, made of bedrooms.
We even tracked down playmates for them
(No easy job since [...]

‘Dreaming in the Shanghai Restaurant’ – I should perhaps say the restaurant wasn’t in Shanghai nor indeed in any other part of China but in Singapore.

Dreaming in the Shanghai Restaurant

I would like to be that elderly Chinese gentleman.
He wears a gold watch with a gold bracelet,
but a shirt without sleeves or tie.
He has good luck [...]

A vignette from post-war Japan.

The Noodle-Vendor’s Flute

In a real city, from a real house,
At midnight by the ticking clocks,
In winter by the crackling roads:
Hearing the noodle-vendor’s flute,
Two single fragile falling notes…
But what can this small sing-song say,
Under the noise of war?
The flute itself a counterfeit
(Siberian wind can freeze the lips),
Merely a rubber bulb and metal [...]