The stars were as exaggeratingly beautiful as dramatically portrayed in the film, except that I saw it before my eyes. A few shooting stars marked the wishful hopes, when I have long stopped praying. the first hesitation was soon replaced by magical why not, things happen nonetheless and you have too little capacity to know if those are from the stars. The camera was too technically far behind to capture all glitters of the night, and why should it bother as once captured it will soon become too flat to ever represents a tiny bit of this much-loaded immersion. The mind, the only thing to rely on with a certain mechanical limit it has, ended up to be the only tool to squeeze in much of this rare immense momentary view into. One can be a little cynic over the language used by the poet but how else can you articulate the jumbled sensations.
The oysters were fresh from the sea, and the mother showed us the foreigner and me being the domestic visitor, the way to crack it open. The flashlight was much help to the curious mind, the smell was barely fishy at all. The ocean behind us crashed the waves together with the noises from delighted urban people, cheering as the mother served the oyster raw straight from her knife. "It's good for fertility". It did not taste fishy and not smelly.. if anything it was a slight sweetness to it. A few oysters later, I left the group and sat beneath the tree, joining two local boys and a friend.
They were talking about the tide, boat, fishes, season. The boys were aged same as me, one is a year younger but both have taken the lead of this whole village island. I do not know how, the senses in the structure don't necessarily apply on this tiny secluded island. I've always seen him blowing a puff of smoke out of his endless amount of cigarettes as if that's the only way his lung could breathe. Leaving tomorrow, they are concerned about the weather to sail, reminded by the recent accident that happened. Being curious with information that doesn't contribute to peace of mind, I prompted them to explain more. His dad shooshed him from behind and walked past. It basically happened on the way back from a wedding ceremony held on the island, and nobody survived. "Can't you tell from the sky color?" "yes but the horizon has a limit, you don't know what the sky looks over that line from the land. A sudden change of weather is possible." He added some soothing lines to make up his fear-inducing story but my mind has raced scenarios on how to make it alive on a drowning ship. What happened on the next day aside (nothing much thankfully), that night has a taste of sea and stars I can keep myself to sleep back in the city, much like scenes of drowning keeps me awake. Meanwhile, did the oysters actually do something to the fertility? I'll never know.
And a slight reminder, Singapore will always be too small of a city to ever take away your long to experience the big world.
The oysters were fresh from the sea, and the mother showed us the foreigner and me being the domestic visitor, the way to crack it open. The flashlight was much help to the curious mind, the smell was barely fishy at all. The ocean behind us crashed the waves together with the noises from delighted urban people, cheering as the mother served the oyster raw straight from her knife. "It's good for fertility". It did not taste fishy and not smelly.. if anything it was a slight sweetness to it. A few oysters later, I left the group and sat beneath the tree, joining two local boys and a friend.
They were talking about the tide, boat, fishes, season. The boys were aged same as me, one is a year younger but both have taken the lead of this whole village island. I do not know how, the senses in the structure don't necessarily apply on this tiny secluded island. I've always seen him blowing a puff of smoke out of his endless amount of cigarettes as if that's the only way his lung could breathe. Leaving tomorrow, they are concerned about the weather to sail, reminded by the recent accident that happened. Being curious with information that doesn't contribute to peace of mind, I prompted them to explain more. His dad shooshed him from behind and walked past. It basically happened on the way back from a wedding ceremony held on the island, and nobody survived. "Can't you tell from the sky color?" "yes but the horizon has a limit, you don't know what the sky looks over that line from the land. A sudden change of weather is possible." He added some soothing lines to make up his fear-inducing story but my mind has raced scenarios on how to make it alive on a drowning ship. What happened on the next day aside (nothing much thankfully), that night has a taste of sea and stars I can keep myself to sleep back in the city, much like scenes of drowning keeps me awake. Meanwhile, did the oysters actually do something to the fertility? I'll never know.
And a slight reminder, Singapore will always be too small of a city to ever take away your long to experience the big world.
