Dedicated to my dear friend Dinny Liew and his family
He is in the hospital room by his father’s deathbed
His father’s chest still rising gently;
He is yet tenderly alive.
The memories come in trickles, in waves
In Choki Choki offered behind his mother’s back
Transformer figurines slipped under his bed
And surprise cendols after a jog at the park.
Then of darker times:
Of stiff arguments, of doors slammed shut
Of stony silence across the dinner table
Simmering disappointments and festering hurt.
But then he remembers
His father’s tender grip during his first day of school
The bear hug he received as he held his straight As
The tears his father fought back as he boarded the plane
The well wishes; the sad smiles
How pride remains when all is said and done.
He gazes at his father before him now
Realizing that his breath had gently ceased
His father’s face a shade of perfect calm
His hand grows cold in his.
Mundane memories, never to be mundane again
Skype calls, Whatsapp voice notes, now forever silenced
Tender kisses on Willow’s cheeks
Advice on being a man now just etches over his heart.
Sorrow is like the sun that sets
Blanketing one’s world in pitch darkness
Until the moon and the stars, the lesser lights, appear
The gold-streaked dawn inches upwards
And in time lights the sky with hope.
