Just Another Morning in KL

By Hazidi Abdul-Hamid.

There was another jam this morning,

Drivers desperately waiting for another weekend to come,

Hands on the wheel while dreaming of sunsets by the ocean.

Their listen to their radios, CDs, Spotify, YouTube, grasping for distractions.

Hammering on the horn like tribal drums.

Driving to corporate powwows to scratch for crumbs.

Eyes looking ahead impersonal collectively numb.

A shuffling sham, joy on the roadside mourning.

They call this commuting,

Cars, trains, buses, two-wheeled monstrosities.

Sometimes, to crash and add to the soul-wrecking crawl.

On tarmac paths through massive concrete sprawl.

Sometimes, you see tiny souls in shiny steel pomposities,

Sometimes, you see them exuding hoity-toity animosities.

Sometimes, you see a radiant beauty with equally dead eyes.

Sometimes, you see a smiling face going the other way.

Sometimes, you pass nasi lemak sellers shooing away flies.

Sometimes, you realise just how much the desperations weigh.

For the uninitiated, KL stands for Kuala Lumpur the capitol of Malaysia. Incidentally, Kuala Lumpur actually means muddy estuary. You don’t actually see the mud anymore.

11/5/2017