R. Ariffin (1975 / Johor, Peninsular Malaysia)

Your eyes were glittering and profound
With love and grandeur in your every heartbeat
As we watched autumn spreads it’s placate breeze
Dancing between Gertrude and Nicholson Street

We believed that here we’d found each other
For better or for worse, for the second time
We believed our fate would entwined together
Like beautiful Irish poems that match rhyme

And for that I held your hand and kissed it
Grateful for the love that was consequential indeed
A love that reflected in your eyes and in your smile
Between Gertrude and Nicholson Street

But the truth itself was like thunder
That cut and hammered our hopes and dreams
Shattering our hearts through the unforgiving mist
Scattered and left to wither like the autumn leaves

And there I lay my heart upon yours
Within the uncertain faith which consumed me
No more stars to look at? , No more love to feel?
No more of you glancing and smiling affectionately?

Love is stream upon stream of hope
And how I wished that ours would tranquilly flow
I held your hand as we were walking in the cold
Promised to myself never, ever to let it go

Then I looked into your eyes as we stood facing each other
In silence between Gertrude and Nicholson street
Knowing that it had become clear, I left my heart there
With hope that was cold and vague as the autumn mist