Last evening in the city of I love yous. You appear in dreams, remaining mute while i go aound the same pretense.
To travel with no agenda. Scratch that hole in the heart's journey.
To plumb again karmic debts. What takes a lifetime. Many more lives.
In Sri Lanka to attend a gay wedding. Last time here was just before the Millenium. The nostalgia lifted, birds and animals came into view. The waves unstoppable still.
When a friend offered the ground floor of a shop house in Georgetown on the last day of my stay, I did not hesitate and said yes. Penang holds a sort of familiarity that kept me coming back. Along the five foot ways and darken hallways, being there conjure for me unfinished conversations and stunted partings... having grown up in a shophouse in Singapore.
In 1995/96 I made a studio out of another shophouse in Amoy Street where I celebrated my late grandmother's birthday. It was the last big family event before leaving Singapore.
Returning here, I am now comforted by soft rice cakes, gentle Hokkien voices, incense in the morning. Like a hungry ghost coming home.
Aunt Emily gave me my first illustrated English Dictionary. It sparked my love of pictures and words.
What passioned her youth? Aunt Emily remained single and stoic till her last day. Upholding what she deemed as family pride and dignity after the death of Grandfather, she looked after Grandmother who lived to a hundred.
She was the family who came to America to check on me when I left, and subsequent visits to watch how I have settled abroad….one summer in Long Island, she boasted the number of tomatoes she harvested. And she came to Yogyakarta in time to witness…the making of a memorial quilt.
Now in memory, Aunty, be free and light.
#49days Memorial, 21 June 2024,
Noon @ongsehcharity
Sign reads:
...The goddess of land and water dug the ground to make the rivers underneath the ground. The rivers flowed and came out onto the land and became big fountain called "Chet Si Fountain" which means seven colours.
A ghost named "Goommapum" guarded the fountain from people who make the water dirty so this area was called "Nong Phee Hai" or The fiercest-ghost fountain. The water from the fountain flowed down to become the
Buatong Waterfall. Nowadays, The water from the fountain and waterfall is not much after the deforestation. It is important to keep and protect the forest and the environment forever.
-Local wisdom, Maehprphra school.
Susan has chopped off the flowering Frangipani. Brutal pruning for threatening to touch the high wire. Performing good neighbourliness, for National Day.
I woke this morning to a past in America, pictures i have gifted to a couple who decorated a Jimmy's Room. My friends have amassed their collection of amphorae and tureens from thier past. What is it about colonial porcelains, our collective past enshrined in the shapes of their negative space.
Gaming without a slot machine. Remix and personalising plush characters. Joy where the child reveals the nonsense in the banal.
“Somehow children find the creative sweet spot between the obvious and the crazy.” -Alison Gopnik. #kiapkiaprevolution @esplanadesingapore #taktakutkidsclub @3pumpkins_sg
