A toothless laugh

Have you ever came across one before?

It was like an ancient magic,
Silent,
Muted by age,
Triggered by a familiar joke from a familiar banter,
Where there was once fangs is now hollow,
Taken by the ferocity of gritted teeth,
The host was a body in a wheelchair,
With shuffling legs that cant stand too long or sit too long,
Eyes lost, untranslateable in a chorus of movement,
I've always wondered what they think of,
Are they alone in the crowd too?
Or is the crowd too familiar to be alone in?
I guess I'm too young to tell,
All I know is that day, I struggled to find life in all that heat and chaos,
When I came across it for the first time,
Beneath a sickly old woman without voice, teeth and strength,
Was a strange laugh that can be seen but not heard,
That was when I learnt that laughters are more for the eyes than the ears,
Because for that brief moment,
With a muted laughter,
She was the liveliest in the noisy crowd,
And the liveliest on that noisy day.

Tiang

Kami asalnya dari angan-angan harapan,
Datang dari jauh,
Bertapak di sini menyemai bumi,

Asal kami dari rumah-rumah kecil bertiang seribu,
Pada tiang-tiang itu tersirat sekelumit senyuman tua,
Pesan senyuman itu,
"Tiang-tiang kami akan roboh"
"Rumah ini akan hilang erti"
"Kamu harus pergi"
"Pergilah"
"Pergi dan bina sebuah rumah baru"
"Rumah ini akan hilang hangatnya"
"Akan hilang warnanya"
"Kelak cuma akan tinggal batu-batu pudar yang sejuk"
"Dan kamu akan perlukan rumah yang baru"
"Ambillah tiang ini"
"Yang terkuat antara seribu tiang"
"Inilah yang terbaik dari kami"
"Pergilah"
"Pergi dan bina sebuah rumah baru"

Maka pergilah kami,
Pembina-pembina yang bertongkat pada amanah rumah lama,
Berbekalkan sebatang tiang,
Cuma satu pertanyaan kami ayah, ibu,
Tidak akan robohkah sebuah rumah bertiang satu?
...tiada jawapan,
hanya senyuman pada tiang itu yang masih tinggal.

Love

Love is the colour you see in black and white,

The stench you remember from a long forgotten photograph,

The cheeky notes in a song you used to listen through the broken cassette player,

and as you forget everything from that moment,

You felt the tenderness of the sun,
Striking on the skin you've forgotten you had.

Love is an angry protection,

The bitter aftertaste from doing what you should instead of what you want.

It is the honest look from that child with the little voice,
 begging you to stay,

with his little hug wrapping around your thigh,

telling you they'd miss you without knowing to speak,
without knowing what it means to miss.

Love is the bread on the table,

The grapes in the fridge,
The singer in the shower,
The smell of fresh laundry,
And the comfort that came unrequested,
Unexpected,

It is the taste beyond words,

Permanent for 12 years,

And goes when they leave.

Love is what you build without purpose,

It is not without fire,

Scarring you where you cant see,

Tingles and burns in quiet nights,

And sleeping well in hustling days,

It exists in ways you wish will never end.