So you can go to work

I seem to be needing a new wallet
Mine’s rather old, admittedly I’ve been faithful to it
I have just enough money to buy one, that much I admit
The problem is I’m broke and down to my last ringgit
If I go and purchase one, there’ll be nothing left in my pocket
The new wallet will be moot, for I have no money to keep in it.

Life is a hoot in all its day-to-day pointlessness
You get a wife, she gets on your nerves
You take out a loan on a car so you can go to work
But you forget that you got the job so you can pay the dealership jerk
Most people soften it with religion, the rest with hard liquor
Thus I’m left with the full brunt of life’s confusion, for I subscribe to neither.

The 8 o'clock cabaret

The crimson caps line up and congregate on one side
From cadet to colonel all collaborators
of this cabinet sponsored cartoon democracy
In the other corner us; the conveyor of catalyst, the coalition
Coaled as criminals, conmen and subsequently convicts
No doubt the amoral character of their 8 o’clock cabaret

We clash with them of course though we do no clobbering
They commit all the cleaving, we contest but a little
For we do not fight cowards, those who are cockless
And it crumbles into a cat and mouse hunt, catch-at-all-costs
They cart and cuff us into their coaches, not unlike cows
Parading us in their convoy, a caravan of curiosities

Their kangaroo court quickly finds us culpable
Culprit of the conspiracy, a cult of the coarse
As if on cue, our custodians carry us away
Confiscate our freedom, curtail our courage
We don’t plead our case, it’s not in the script
The curtain comes down, but no one’s clapping.

Kuala lumpur oh kuala Lumpur
Can you hear our cry oh Kuala Lumpur
The cock and bull on your cable, consider it carefully
For they were all created quite cunningly
Keep in your recollection, never quell the memory
For we convened for you, and collapsed in your view.

The Serdang Gloom

I remembered it like it was in my own backyard
Every turn, every stoplight, every money grubbing toll plaza
All the young lovers oblivious to their partners' disinterest
All the vacationing couples putting off divorce for another week.
We would fight half the way and sulk the remaining half
And in came a silence so stinging a slap is a caress, that things
Ended with me chasing away the dim sun thinking it was a rainy cloud
Ended with me grinning a smile that’s so damn proud.

But Serdang is now like the drop when using a long noose
Much like watching the government-written RTM news
I recognise it when I see it in my term paper
It keeps me company when I'm having a lonesome dinner
It swirls and waves at me at the bottom of each bottle
And I cant now smile even when a gun is at my temple, for
Some nights I think I'll go mad trying not to think of you
Some nights I'm sure I'm mad when all my dreams are about you.

With Prozac in one pocket and a ring in the other
With happiness on one hand and enslavement on the other.
I will return to Melaka my land of future promises
Where the sun shines sufficiently for those who badly need it
For returning couples that chickened out of divorce
For young lovers who come with a new amour.
Whether you like it or not I'm grafting a smile onto my face
If it means you'll shine brighter and chase this Serdang gloom away.

That self-made ire

My problems real or imagined can be solved by liquid solution
(and no I don't mean ablution)
Wherever you are now is none of my concern
Since I can find you now in sweet intoxication
Where we spend our nights in make believe fornication

I've been made to grow older but none the wiser
A constant quitter, who's every bit a loser
That you painstakingly made in your image
Only to later hate with a passionate rage

In my current state I confuse the facts all the time
All the fights there were many, all the joy I keep recalling
Yes I was the one parachuting out the plane as it caught fire
But you were the one torching it with that self-made ire

I hate it when it wears off, this temporary absolution
It tends to put me resentfully in this realistic position
As I am more able to walk in a relatively straight direction
The truth starts to sink in:
I am here quite sober, in your resounding absence.

The last cigarette at the top of the minaret

The tallest building in Bangi
Seems to be the minaret of the mosque
So that will have to do for me to fulfill
My pledge as a man who's at the edge

Bearing in mind that this, too, shall pass
I'll crawl up the stairs, out of this self-made mess
Broken glass, promises, confidence all now ghosts of the past
As a new man emerges at the top, almost with a hop

The view will be breathtaking in the stillness of the night
As I light my last cigarette at the top of the minaret
The cold shackles will have bound me for the last time
For I'll be flying off the minaret fearlessly, worry-free.