to cousin noel

Cousin
--------

our past knows a way,
homing us in wonder.

this is cousin noel and me. playing soldier-cowboy-wu xia ying xiong sagas whatever... messy chronicles of childhood games (or perhaps it was police and thief?) back in keat hong kampung (where cck mrt line now runs) in 1982(?)

geeky we. one was cat-eyed, super slim. the other, eyes round as planets, crystal-clear innocence in shine.

look at us today. one, a suave hue of bespectacled and warm humanity, while another resembles a tuft-haired reflective-awkward-wannabe, like a thoughtful exiled equator-bronzedblacked penguin. (pix ahead!)

we are still very much in touch today. meet once awhile for teh o and char bee hoon along commonwealth crescent. granny's homestead.

we bear witness to each other's growth. the unforgotten childlike escapades we still laugh about today. the empty teenage years where each was left to cope with physical throbs and heart-rending spells. now father-to-be and brother to many. we walk on the same road again. an adult calendar of obligations and secret struggles to cope and simply...to be happy again.

of course we arrive to more definitions of 'happiness' these days.


we took this on a granite outcrop in ubin. i had returned for holiday. the past had never become more whole that hour, when we posed precariously, and risked a shot

smiling.


our gladness colliding in gratitude all at once.

a sense to truth. in kinship.










our presence to what we share-
you calling me









cousin













now meant much more than
what we sought.