yesterday i passed by my childhood stall by the road;
what an experience it was!
that woman in her 30s i used to see,
now only her creased forehead and face
to add another dimension between us.
how sweet her layered little squarish
suntan cakes still tasted;
those layers that i peeled off
piece by piece to savour their charms.
and as i peeled the woman gave me
that more mature and
deeply heartstirring smile
that tore through the distance
between us as if each layer i had peeled carried a
story of her own life.
those years of experiences now seen in phases,
like the layers of her cake.
the child in me leapt up again.
i left behind what
has separated us to present the innocent smile
we used to give each other.
momentarily we lived those days when i was a child
and she a young woman.
those childhood years
when we saw people as what they were.
those childhood years
when our smiles, love
were a fountain spring of ourselves
until the days when growing up
added different shades
of feelings and thoughts to our relationships.
i hate the layer
those creases and wrinkles laid in me.
i prefer to see them
as a child
where she would probably be
the wise woman in some cartoon film.
how those cakes would never
be the same again.
how i loved those pink and white layers,
the pink and white that had always
carried a fairy tale behind them.
(by John Tiong Chung Hoo)
Striking poem, Beautifully worded; a wave of nostalgia overwhelmed me.
