By Malachi Edwin Vethamani
A HABITATION OF ONE’S OWN
(i)
His journey began
with a seed of hope,
an unwavering resolute
to seek new opportunities.
Tossed on a sea
caught between two land masses,
a small soul
lurching towards a dark land.
Greeted on land by few, familiar faces
his hungry belly needed feeding
and work to provide a roof,
shelter from sun and rain.
*
Daytime sweat saving dollars
to return home one day
to buy land
build a house, raise a family.
The journey home,
constantly deferred,
soon blurs
familiar family faces.
News from home
arrives with newcomers
few and far between.
Scant and sketchy.
Life takes a new turn
and begins to take root
in the once harsh
friendless, orphaned land.
*
The years pass on,
the world encroaches
upon little lives with
deaths and disappearances.
A sudden change of masters
abandoned by the white man
terrorised by Japanese swords,
heads on stakes.
Survived to hear shouts of “Merdeka”!
gave little cause for rejoicing
received a red identity card,
labelling him a foreigner.
(ii)
His labour,
faith in his God,
hope for his children
remain resolute and unyielding.
The change of masters
has meant little for his lot,
still second-class citizens
meted out meagre morsels.
The land that had drawn
the father now pushes
his children away,
to seek new shores.
They now depart
to distant lands,
leaving father and mother
like their father once had.
(iii)
Tirunelveli
Madras
Penang
Kuala Lumpur
Malaya
Malaysia
All the places
my father passed through,
then resolutely remained
refusing to return.
Now he lies in Cheras,
at final rest, all labours done
in Malaysian soil
with a blue identity card.
(First published in ‘Life Happens’, Petaling Jaya, Maya Press, 2018)
NEW ARRIVALS
You now arrive
on wings of hope
small bands of brothers
leaving behind kinfolk.
Budding youth
soon to be savaged
in this land.
Like you,
my father and uncles
once made that journey.
Different routes,
not similar conditions.
Same hopes, not of wealth
but to mete out
a life for themselves.
Decisions made to leave
home and village
on a single-way passage
unclear destinations.
Their long journey
many decades ago
tossed and turned
on unkindly seas.
The sight of land
through sea-sick eyes
gave little comfort,
knowing that another journey
was set to begin
with no preparation
on touching land -
the promised Malaya.
Now, you arrive
over land and by air,
fatigued and clueless.
A piece of paper
in your hand
holding hope and despair
Like so many before you.
(First published in ‘Life Happens’, Petaling Jaya, Maya Press, 2018)
THE OTHER CHILD
As the candles on his thirteenth
birthday cake were blown out,
so ended a dear dream.
Unlike his freshly minted teenage friends
he is labelled different.
Losing the camaraderie of childhood friends,
set aside as a refugee.
A word he would hear more and more.
He too was born in this land.
Sang Negaraku* every school week,
the last six years.
Now those doors he yearned for
are closed to him.
His parents are silent.
They have no answers.
They say: Be patient.
God will answer our prayers.
I have not changed overnight.
But they see me different now.
My sun-filled school days now grey.
I now wait for my father
with news of a new school,
among others sharing a similar fate
born in this land
but still a refugee.
*Malaysian national anthem
(First published in Rambutan Kisses, 2022)
Malachi Edwin Vethamani is a poet, writer, editor, critic, bibliographer and Emeritus Professor at University of Nottingham. His publications include: Rambutan Kisses (2022), The Seven O’clock Tree (2022) and Love and Loss (2022), Coitus Interruptus and Other Stories (2018), Life Happens (2017) and Complicated Lives (2016). His individual poems have appeared in several literary journals and anthologies. His edited four volumes of Malaysian poetry in English. The Malaysian Publishers Association awarded Malchin Testament: Malaysian Poems the National Book Award 2020 for the English Language category. His collection of poems Complicated Lives and his edited volume of poems Malaysian Millennial Voices were finalists for the National Book Award 2022 for the English Language category.
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