i am your average Singaporean student,

when i speak, it is all-important that i break my sentences with dialect words and strange abbreviations,

i open my mouth but no words appear.

it is an empty bubble,

i nod and mumble and agree my way through school,

i do not love singapore but don't know what else to think, so why not?

i think i know things but when i check, my memory card really reads zero bytes.

i gaze at skies and trees, birds on telephone lines and light beams splattered on black tarmac with dispassionate eyes.

i do not read the papers,

apathy is my middle name.

i go through a motion called 'flag-raising' every morning,

i whisper the national anthem with joy,

most times, my mind is blank

but filled with formulae i do not really need to understand,

i was trained for the future from the day i stepped into a pap kindergarten or was chosen for gp (gifted programme) or walked into a tuition centre,

i sit in school as a silent rock in a silent canyon,

copy&paste words from the board into my mind.

i am the future,

i am told that i am my country's only resource,

i must do well, graduate cum laude.

nation before self

i will adhere to that command.

i am your leader for the future

i have only one failing

i cannot think.

last - next