GODS CAN DIE (SINGAPORE) POEM - BY EDWIN THUMBOO
#POEM TEXT
GODS CAN DIE
-EDWIN THUMBOO
I have seen powerful men
Undo themselves, keep two realities
One for minor friends, one for the powers that be,
The really powerful. such people take a role
Supporting managers of state.
Accept an essential part, in some minor project.
But after a bit of duty,
That makes them fester with intentions,
They play the major figure to old friends.
We understand and try to seek a balance in the dark
To know the private from the public monument,
To find our way between the private and the public argument
Or what can be said or if a thing is meant
Or meant to make amends? is generous or mean?
The casual word, the easiness, the quick straight answer,
The humane delay, the lack of cautiousness
That gave ample laughter to our evenings
Are too simple for these days of power
Whose nature is to hint not state.
So when one has a chance to talk the conversation
Hesitates on the brink of momentous things;
He ponders. . .
Suggesting by some unremark
There was much to be said.
It's a pity: good men who seek to serve
Bind themselves unto a cause,
Then use the fate of nations as a rationale
To take their friends aside,
To lead themselves into some history.
We gain uncertain statesmen: many lose a friend.
But I am glad that others are powerful with compassion,
Who see before we do what troubles us
And help in kindness, take ignorance in tow.
If not for such we lose our gods
Who lived but now are dying in our friends.
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