ELANGOVAN
Curfew
Curfew
12 noon Wednesday 22 July 1964
slurping the multicoloured iceball
carefully picked from the
weatherbeaten oily lefthand of the
Chinese apek in dark blue and cane topi
eyeballed the pandemonium from the three-wheeler
castaway in the middle of Cecil Street between
Telok Ayer Integrated Primary School and CID
Chinese, Malays and Indians
piggybacked children and schoolbags home
appa and five mamas from Enggor Street
undulating in the unnavigable melee for me
pierced by apolitical propaganda
Lari! Melayu potong Cheena
rolled home with colours running amok on white uniform
in a trishaw-ride forwarded by ten Indian hands
12 noon Friday 24 July 1964
rushing from GH along Cantonment Road with feverish amma
“Don’t touch me I am theetu today”
“What is theetu?”
“a starving low-caste in my village
touched the ponggal at our family koyil
and we closed the koyil for theetu.”
eight Chinamen with parangs made us kneel
“Melayu? Muslim?” a parang-stroked her fair-skinned neck
arresting no red-dot between eye-brows
a tattooed thug spat on his finger
and scratched her tiny green-dot tattooed by a kuratthi
“Oh India” “Pergi!”
4pm Sunday 24 August 2003
amma’s green-dot messages time-restriction
through her vibuthi
when they place appa into the coffin
for Mount Vernon Crematorium
