Leo Thirteen

(When Padma and I were rushing for a train ride somewhere in a small town in India, on a bumblebee black and yellow autorickshaw, kicking up dust clouds through town roads, I caught sight, in the distance, of Leo XIII Primary School)

The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science.

Einstein

from Luca's quote bomb tonight

I like nonsense- it wakes up the brain cells

Dr Seuss

Everybody's youth is a dream, a form of chemical madness

F. Scott Fitzgerald

Steel blue twilight in the world

And in my heart a timid star

Sara Teasdale

There's such an effort to try and explain people.

Tilda Swinton

I don't like standard beauty. There is no beauty without strangeness.

Karl Lagarfeld

Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind.

Dr Seuss

Interstellar Travel

There are wormholes in old books, the sky, an old musky jewellery box, bedtime stories, a song, a quote, a poem, a found photograph, a kiss (I wouldn't know though), the rain, the mail, going under the covers with toys. But will we ever know if there are mermaids and fishes (or unimaginable creatures) swirling and swimming in the underwater world of Ganymede? (warm currents, covered by a layer of ice, Ganymede, one of Jupiter's moons, looks like a glowing crystal ice ball you could suck on) And what if meteorites (pieces of rock from asteroids that fall onto earth) are actually of colours that we cannot perceive, imagine or know of. They are not actually grey. They may even Glow or do other things we cannot conceive, like glow/meld/morph/interlinked with new concepts. Oh how cosmology blows my mind. It's wonderful, it's coming, my rocket takes off in five days.

moon light years

I can't give you anything but the air between us

dust particles that float in the cosmos between us

little galaxies of uncertain age

galloping to disperse, suiciding towards black holes

to free the space between us

a gravity-free void

to free fall into

free fall orbit

we'll lead stellar lives

STELLAR LIVES

free falling eternity

for as long as the universe keeps expanding

multiplying into infinite alternate parallel universes

(alternate or parallel?)

to the point of no time

time out of mind

no return, no mime time,

no infinitive relativity-

deep breath into love lungs

a trillion moons fly by our bodies

the stars shine forever

Love is

my grandmother asking me what I want for breakfast every night;

when she watches me eat the nutritious steamed fish with ginger

that she cooked with her tubby belly sticking out at the flaming wok;

my father who doesn't give a hoot-ass about the art I make

picking me up from the mrt at 11.30pm in his pyjamas;

my mother, not giving up;

a real tight hug;

lunch at 12:15;

sitting close;

letting me use the toilet first;

sharing water;

packing lunch too;

a handwritten letter, sent by post;

a brush of the hair, pat on the head;

a rusty old accordion;

landing in India;

28-rupee thali eaten by hand;

phone call from home in another land;

delirium spice mixed by heart;

long silent train rides, crazy wal-mart;

magic marvellous masala chai;

sharing roadside pad thai

you had coffee I had soya bean

you have long hair I have short,

you are tall I am so tiny but we

confidently walk the dark streets side by side;

landing in changi airport and

going to the girl's toilet together;

waiting waiting waiting and then

going to the movies together;

sleeping over with the cousins;

the smell of dried flowers;

the fresh taste of mango;

the warmth of tangyuan;

the wholesome fragrance of nasi lemak rice;

when you tiao found dou jiang;

garage sales on sunday afternoons;

phlegm wriggling in the pavement;

an old hard scab;

a wrinkled veined hand;

a gloomy reservoir lake;

the talon of a black cawing crow;

droplets of nosebleed;

throwing chicken rice at the wall,

sweet sauce stain and red chilli brains;

terribly sleepless nights;

nearly a heart attack, angry blue blood;

the familiar smell of insect repellent;

rough tree bark outside my house;

rainbow suicides on sunny days;

playing pretend on rainy days;

pretending to love on empty nights;

a mime;

without time;

time out of mind;

fat juicy lemon-lime;

not needing to explain;

dangerous, poisonous, consuming;

simple, gentle, sweet, kind.

I am my own castle; head to the blooming clouds, roots to the wet damp soil.