inspired by random and some not-so-random events and people in my life

Sunday, November 27, 2005

The Phantom Speaks, in Prose

“I gave you my music
Made your song take wing
And now, how you've
Repaid me, denied me
And betrayed me.
He was bound to love you
When he heard you sing.”

From the musical, The Phantom of the Opera, by Andrew Lloyd Webber. For the full libretto, check this out. For the synopsis based on the novel by Gaston Leroux, this is the Wikipedia link.

Curses, cried the Phantom.
Am I so repulsive,
The monster fronting the man?
Who says I have no right
To take the Beauty
Even if I’m the Beast?

Damn it, spat the Phantom.
Why am I drawn to talent
Like a moth to a burning flame?
Why should I mould you, shape you
With the power that lies in my hands
So that insipid fools like him
Can dry your tears?

Don’t pity me, snarled the Phantom.
You know you belong to me.
Deny me if you must
But look me in the face,
This face!
I will not fade away.
I claim my rightful place as the Other.

He is Raoul to her Christine
And here I reprise my role
For the umpteenth time.
My life as a musical cliché is
A repetitive motif,
Sadly, nay, pathetically so.

On Thin Ice

A 44-year old man and his 9-year old daughter died on an ice-skating trip at a small pond in Cedar Grove, Wisconsin. She fell through the ice and he fell in while trying to rescue her. The snow was falling.

"There is no such thing as safe ice.” – Sheriff’s Deputy Jim Opgenorth

And yet I choose to skate
Believing as Emerson did
That safety is in the speed.
Faster and faster I go
Till it all becomes a blur.
The snow falls -
A blanket of prettiness
Obscures what cautionary signs there are.
I wrap myself
In a cocoon of falsehoods
Blithely ignoring impending doom
Till I fall through, with a crash.

Wednesday, November 23, 2005

Words

As defined in the dictionary
They only say so much.

“I don’t like you.”
You scare me.
I scare myself.
What will others say?

“Don’t go.”
I don’t want to be alone here
I’ve forgotten what it is like.

“I love you.”
Right now at least.
I don’t love anyone else.

They could mean something else
Or nothing at all.
Sometimes silence says more.

Tuesday, November 15, 2005

Instead

Today, instead of working
I thought instead.

Instead of work
I thought of
All the meals I have yet to wrap my tastebuds around
The tastes
The textures
The smells.

Today, instead of dreaming
I thought instead.

Instead of dreams
I thought of
All the images I have yet to capture
The colours
The angles
The composition.

Today, instead of wanting
I thought instead.

Instead of wants
I thought of
All the books I have yet to read
All the movies I have yet to watch
All the songs I have yet to sing
All the stories I have yet to hear, and tell
All the conversations I have yet to have
All the coffee I have yet to savour
All the walks I have yet to take
All the landscapes I have yet to lay my eyes on
All the art I have yet to appreciate
All the hugs I have yet to give
All the smiles I have yet to share
All the people I have yet to love
All the breaths I have yet to take
All the things I have yet to be thankful for

Today, instead of now
I thought of
All the life I have yet to live.

I am smiling, now.

Saturday, November 12, 2005

Conundrum, Conundrums

How does one explain to the naïve that
All that glitters is not gold
That fair can be foul, and foul fair
And not every guy on a white horse
Wears a white suit?

How does one explain to the paranoid that
A gift by definition, is just that, a gift
No strings attached
That love, whatever the impetus, is still love
And that there are some people one can trust
No matter what?

How does one explain to the cynical that
Giving is better than receiving
That choosing to be used is the best way to
Avoid being used
And not being loved is no reason
Not to love?

How does one explain that
There are worse things in life to owe than money
That people are more than the sum of their functions
And denying a relationship exists does not in fact
Obliterate it?

If you know how, tell me.

Monday, November 07, 2005

Seeing Things

You will never be
Who I want you to be
You aren't even who
You want yourself to be.
Are you a figment
Of my imagination,
The product of your fantasies,
Or the other way around?
If you exist only in our minds
Separately
We're both chasing
The shadow of a dream.

Service with a Smile

I can't be
Who you want me to be, then
I will be
What you want me to be
In my own way.
Will that be all
For today?

Tuesday, November 01, 2005

Falling in Love

Those who have lived life a little and loved a lot will know what I’m talking about :)

Age
Gender
Race
Logic
Love defies all
You can choose to love
But Cupid’s arrows fall
Where they please
(Cheesy but true)
Singaporeans put it best
Bak chew tak stamp hor?

It Takes Two Hands

Like walking on egg shells
We tiptoed carefully
Gingerly
Avoiding the pitfalls
In tacit agreement
Warily
Playing give and take
Successfully
Traversing the landscape of
Life and love
For two hours
In three months
We concurred.
The sound of two hands clapping?
Gratifying
Satisfying.