TEMASEK

Was this the site where five rajas

Sauntered and sported

Amongst these trees

Under forbidden shades

Within this same bukit

When ancient waterfalls broke

The sportive giggles of dayangs

Dancing puteris  pined and sighed

Amidst serunais, tambors and tambourines

The trees are silent

The hills will not speak

Will the dark earth yield dire tales

Which foreshadowed this forlorn amnesia

Will the monsoon rains lay bare

lingering trails from excavated earth

Reveal ancient intrigues and conspiracies

Layered remains of buried treacheries

To exorcise ghosdy secrets and murders?

Retell shadows of angry gajahs

From distant Ayuthia

Advancing hordes uprooting wild trunks

To avenge a royal murder most foul

In old Temasek

Of Samudra descent and Hindu lineage

Confronting stronger arms, superior might

Led a ragtag retinue of cronies

Fled with unseemly haste

Across the treacherous straits

In search of a new haven

Under an old melaka tree

Sang Kancil bid him rest

Established a new kingdom

To cleanse the assassin's stains

Of blood and ignominy

His son Iskandar rose to proclaim

a new Sultanate and godly sovereignty

over Kota Melaka

to spite the heathen southern isle

Zhenghe, eunuch and Muslim,

led an armada from Cathay

came to visit

took copious notes

rhinoceros horns, wild herbs

left to report on the wonders

of a new periphery

Returned to seal a new alliance

For peace and tranquillity in the South Seas

And Melaka prospered

(III)

And Temasek was overrun, laid waste -

Became a pirate's lair

Strewn with skulls and bones

The people left

Wild jungle reclaimed the land -

Harimaus, singas, and pelandoks

Roamed with primeval abandon

Imperialism came, and Raffles landed

Unveiled an old trickery to the Temenggong

Lured Sultan Hussein from his retreat at Rhio.

Signed, sealed and delivered

A desolate isle for a pension

In cursive calligraphy

On durable parchment

A colonial modernity rose from the seas

An Emporium of the East

A fortress, new harbour, airport, railways, roads

Banks, agency houses, shopping malls

Grew, proliferated in tandem

Towering high-rise of steel and stones rose

Orchids migrated from wild recesses

To gardens and nurseries

Bougainvilleas graced the lawns

And crimson hibiscus disappeared

(IV)

Will the unchanging monsoons

Wash away the debris of memories

To reveal the buried secrets of the earth

And purge this land from murders

Will rainbow hibiscus bloom again?