A little something for dear chee kiang who’s missing me while he sits under the stars in Port Dickson. 🙂
The Sweet Years
When I was 13,
Keying in data on the library computers,
I leant over and extorted your email address from you,
And you didn’t even know my name.
When I was 14,
We were brought together,
By two people who broke our hearts.
And then you gave deriratives of my name,
From Joey to Jo,
To the new baby rabbits you found one morning.
I remember how you’d stop to talk,
Everyday after school.
When I was 15,
It was cold in the highlands,
So I grabbed on to your hands,
And you did not let me go.
I know you were watching me closely,
As I pretended to sleep that night.
When I was 16,
We danced in our own rhythm,
On the eve of my 17th birthday,
Which was our school prom.
The music got slower,
And our faces came closer,
In the dim of the light,
I broke the magic,
As I bent down,
To inspect some confetti.
I was too shy to kiss.
When I was 17,
I realised how much I missed you,
Letters came from across the causeway,
As we finalized our going-ons,
So that we can stop playing games,
And do it for real this time.
When I was 18,
You gave a trail of kisses across my cheek,
And it led on to my lips.
A kiss shared 33 stories above the city,
Oblivious to the glittering skyline,
A memory I will hold dear.
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