Maybe Yes! Maybe No!: A Poet Looks at Everything Under the Sun, Well, Maybe Yes, Maybe No.

1

A little hungry

It was a public holiday, my family and I headed for the zoo. We were already there at the gate by 9.00am, the zoo’s opening time. Not too hot, you understand.

At slightly past noon we were done. We adjourned to a restaurant within the zoo and had fried chicken. We were hungry. All that walking about made us so.

The animals have had lunch earlier, or more like brunch. The otters had fish, the elephants had bananas and shoots, the giraffes their leaves, the meat-eaters their meat, and so on.

Each type was given food according to their God-given diet (or maybe not, we humans as masters, force-changed all that). Their menu is pretty standard, day in and day out. As long as they get their portion, they’re happy.

We humans are spoilt for choice. There’s a 24-hour channel on TV devoted solely to cuisine. Our bookstores are choked full with cook books. There’s always a section on food in almost every newspaper worth its salt.

One of man’s downfalls is the diversity of food available to him. True, it gives rise to creative cuisine and art forms but it also engenders gluttony and ego-trips. Animals kill other animals to fill their stomachs but we kill to fill not only our bellies but our hearts as well. Therein lays many dangers.

Enjoy food. Let it sustain you, never to destroy you.

Eat a little hungry

And you won’t be troubled by obesity

Eat a little poorly

And there will be enough for everybody

When you eat princely

The devil stands and applauds you worthy.

~~~~~~~

2

A moment in time

Insha’Allah, replies a Malaysian politician when asked whether he will be contesting for a seat in Parliament in the coming election.

God willing this and God willing that, he sounds rather reluctant. Unbeknownst to many, he harbours great ambition. He knows that if he gets a seat, he will be able to manoeuvre the party top leadership for a ministerial position. Or at least, a deputy minister.

Behind the scene he has already made great plans. He has sat down with his core group and mapped out strategies. He has talked to many people in his party, trying to win their support. He takes great pains making sure he appears in the papers every few days. He has quietly been making promises to his supporters for positions in the government for them should he win. He is arm-twisting certain persons. He is making future business deals and stashing political funds.

Insha’Allah, if the people think that I can be of service to them, Insha’Allah, I can serve, he says with a weak smile.

Insha’Allah or as God wills is how a man of faith should always utter. The trouble is, a sly man can always also utter it. Perhaps to the Malaysian politician, this utterance serves his purposes well at his moment in time.

I sped down the mountain road,

tyres bit hard into the gravel,

an appointment was due, my watch showed,

but I still have a long way to travel.

A snake came from nowhere,

slithered across in full sight;

a prey must’ve taunted it from the other side,

for it swerved with great might.

It was a second faster,

or was I a fraction slower?

I missed it by a foot,

on the hard ground, burned lines of rubber soot.

I drove on for my appointment,

only on reaching was I afforded a moment,

I thought back of what could be an accident,

I could have gone off the mountain.

I thought of the snake alive and well,

as quickly as it appeared, vanished into thin air;

did it get its meal? I couldn’t tell,

only that we came together to give each other a scare.

As fellow creatures, diverse,

to each a different purpose,

different minds and different lives,

for a moment in time and space all seemed to collide.

We’re both alive and well,

we could also be dead and gone;

destiny dictates and compels,

all predetermined or freewill borne?

~~~~~~~

3

A pain kept

Patrick is a friendly and wealthy man. He also has a penchant for cars and keeps a small fleet in his garage. Not those antique models but modern marques. A BMW, an Audi, a Mercedes Benz, a Harrier, an Accord and others, even the measly Proton Saga. Not that he only keeps them all for show, he also uses them by rotation following a sequence known only to himself.

Patrick has many friends. Whenever one of them is suddenly in need of a car and asks to borrow one for a few days he would gladly lend it to him.

On one occasion his friend, Albert whose relatives were coming from Australia and he wanted to take all seven of them to Penang Island for sightseeing and fun, checked with him whether he could use his Toyota Alphard. Patrick immediately said okay.

Unfortunately on the way home after their tour, this group met with an accident. It wasn’t Albert’s fault. The car in front braked suddenly for a dog running across the road. He braked as well and managed to stop in time but the car following him was too close and rammed into the Alphard’s rear. The tail lights were smashed and the rear end dented.

The MPV was still able to move and they managed to reach home safely. Albert returned it immediately apologizing profusely. He offered to pay for the repair cost but Patrick would have none of it. He waved Albert off, telling him that it was alright.

What are friends for?! Patrick told him smilingly.

Patrick repaired the Alphard at considerable cost and it was back in his garage after a week. A few months later he quietly sold it.

Now whenever Patrick, Albert and their gang of friends meet for drinks or at parties and whenever the subject of cars is talked about, Patrick almost never fails to bring up for banter how Albert wreaked his Alphard.

A pain kept is a pain remembered,

A pain freed is a pain dismembered,

It decides whether a soul be easy or embittered.

~~~~~~~

4

A thinking man

Scientists like to tell us that both the dinosaur and the cockroach existed during prehistoric times. Why did the dinosaurs all die? But why do the cockroaches still survive?

For the dinosaurs, they’re always putting forth competing theories. Great volcanic activity, shifting of tectonic plates, earthquakes of cataclysmic proportion, bombardment by giant asteroids, advent of the ice age, Noah’s flood and the scarcity of food are among the popular ones.

As for the cockroach, there’re not as many attempts at explanation because cockroaches are still with us today.

Scientists study and conduct researches but they can never be totally sure. It’s always they think, they believe, and they take a stand.

Is Jesus really the Son of God? If so, why did he have to die on the cross that fateful Friday? Historians offer some reasons. Theologians however, offer only one but it comes loaded with many doctrines.

What are we to know? What should we believe? In a way like scientists, we think, we believe, and we take a stand. Unto what end?

Unto what end after we have done our thinking, our believing and taking a stand? If not for anything more, I think Good Friday not only should make us think deep but that our thinking may lead to thoughtfulness.

Last week, also on a Friday the father of a former colleague of mine passed away after a long illness. I sms-ed her my condolences and offered my help. She sms-ed back, Tks. That is v thoughtful of u.

I am a thinking man,

A man of science.

I see with my eyes

And decide.

Officials pass by,

I stand aside.

I am no lawyer,

I am a thinking man.

The soldiers come,

I let them.

I am not a man of violence,

I am a thinking man.

The crowd cheers,

I remain silent.

Sheer emotionalism,

I am a thinking man.

We are all thinking men.

We all thought wrong,

One Friday.

I am a thoughtful man . . .

~~~~~~~

5

Adam Lambert

I knew Paul (not his real name) for a very long time. We attended college together. He’s good-looking and holds a stable job. He’s also homosexual, a closet gay. At one time while struggling with his condition he went to see a shrink. At another time he went regularly to church.

That was decades ago. He’s now still in the closet, though the door is no longer closed.

The 2009 American Idol first runner-up, 27-year old Adam Lambert announced in that same year to Rolling Stone of his sexual orientation. This celebrity often wears flamboyant clothes, heavy makeup, earrings and other jewellery.

I don’t think it should be a surprise for anyone to hear I’m gay, he told the editors of Rolling Stone. He added, I’m proud of my sexuality… I embrace it. It’s just another part of me… I’m trying to be singer, not a civil rights leader.

Homosexuals are called by many derogatory names—gays, queers, fags, fairies, drag kings, shirt lifters, aunties—just to name some. Good people are called straights. I always wonder how straight and upright they are!

The tribe manipulates

And dictates because it’s afraid

Of you and what you say,

Influence the tribe with your errant ways.

The tribe evangelizes,

Seeking converts of its own kind,

But you, it seeks to ostracise,

You who refuse to tow the line.

Yes, man, you must keep

From being overwhelmed by the tribe,

Awake, you must not sleep,

The lashes are about to strike.

The tribe must be protected at all costs

From infidels like you and your torts,

You must bear, O man, the price

Of your errant mind.

Lonely man, bear your pain,

True to yourself you’re still sane,

Do not retaliate

For it’s against your pledge.

~~~~~~~

6

Animosity and humanity

Before concluding his sermon, the preacher intoned, Only Jesus saves! The consequence of sin is death. All of us are sinners. We deserve death. But Jesus Christ paid the price of sin for us when He died on the cross at Calvary. Now we can be set free, no longer condemned. Believe in Him, friends, before you leave tonight and you’d be saved and have eternal life.

And I found myself asking softly, What about animals?

Thankfully, no one heard.

Animosity came from the word, animal

But most animals are shy and gentle

Only a few are fierce and untameable

But all are reasonable—

They only attack for self-survival.

Humanity came from the word, human

Now humans are most unpredictable—

From the men to the women to children

They fight for selfish reasons

They kill for self-indulgence.

What irony!

Animals do not display animosity

Yet they fall with humanity,

Humans do not display humanity

Yet they are saved by Calvary.

~~~~~~~

7

Banning Bruce Almighty

When the fantasy comedy Bruce Almighty with Jim Carrey as Bruce was about to release in 2003, the Malaysian Religious Affairs minister, Abdul Hamid Zainal Abidin called for