Teck Seng Chow

I speak to the fish in the bowl in the National Language 
Each vowel beating like wind against glass 
Each accent dancing like mosquitoes 

My watch shows each second rising, teeming, like wind and smoke 

1950’s English is the colonial language 
             Imagining the National Language, let us speak Malay  
1965’s National Language: English? Malay? Both? 

Every place on the map chokes with smoke, where is there a safe place for us? 

Straits Settlements      Federation of Malaya        Malaya      Malaysia  
Taiwan      Republic of China 
Temasek      Singapura       Singapore  
Please read after me 
Nation — NAT-ION 
You have your National Language, I have mine  
Each tongue is alive, free from officialese 

We sit at a round table practising the National Language
The fish in the round round bowl pout with round round goldfish mouths 

The fish are tongues in mouths, squirming like snakes 

Sometimes with lips shaped like “O”, other times no When the mouth is round:
it is yu, it is language, it is Bahasa Melayu, it is U 

When the mouth isn’t round:
it is ikan, it is English, it is Inilah Singapura

       _______

* Ikan is Malay for “fish”. 

Inilah Singapura translates into “This is Singapore”.