A few days short of a month back in my homeland 
and I can already tell you
A few reasons why
I should 
(for your sake, and my own perhaps)
take this country
or have it take me 
only in small doses. 

Siglap, as I remembered it
one of the two 
smoking tables at Starbucks, 
(birthplace of the lost boys and big dreams)
where you first stuck your hand out 
to say 
‘hello’
Now occupied by young punks
with their NEXTChill, snapbacks and
seven-dollar coffee.

Holland Village, we used to go to school there
where you and I met;
a sight of white and navy,
Coffee Bean study sessions 
and 
Taman Warna/Jln Hitam Manis
the streets we used to walk down
hand in hand, 
streetlights affixed to the asphalt 
the only remaining things 
of certainty. 

Tonight I’m back on a red eye 
to glitzing, grinding, the grandeur 
of London.
I am living the dream, 
they say- 
you’ve made it just because. 
The Siglap boys will be enlisting
and graduating and 
probably still be smoking.
Mummy will go back to cleaning 
my empty room 
‘to pretend you’re there’ 
Daddy is moving back and 
baby Caitlyn will continue to 
grow and tomorrow-

Singapore
will go back to being on a screen 
this magnificent, two dimensional city
of my past
and my reminiscent heart 
will continue 

to beat.