Our Equivalent Poem by Cain XXX

The system has been set in place
It’s do or die,
We cannot defy
By a number we are defined
So we had better score high.

We all know the common belief
Get a high number or the future is bleak
Yet, what is a number
But a blot of ink?

A worse fate than Death await those that skive
So we mug and mug though we bleed inside.
And at the end of the day,
What from all this shall we have gained?
Naught but a number that which
The world values our worth with.

We are the new generation.
Children without a childhood,
Alive but not allowed to live,
We’re trapped in a world of expectations not our own,
Expectations that see
Us not as human beings
But machines
Valued by a number.

*in Singapore, to mug is to study really, really hard.