Poem For Merlion

A poem for the Merlion, that has became Singapore’s Guardian

And dedicated to Maurice Baker

ULYSSES BY MERLION

I have sailed many waters,

Skirted islands of fire,

Contended with Circe,

Who loved the squeal of pigs;

Passed Scylla and Charybdis

To seven years with Calypso.

Heaved in battle against the gods.

Beneath it all

I kept faith with lthaca, travelled,

Travelled and travelled,

Suffering much, enjoying a little;

Met strange people singing

New myths; made myths myself.

But this lion of the sea

Salt-maned, scaly, wondrous of tail,

Touched with power, insistent

On this brief promontory…

Puzzles

Nothing, nothing in my days

Foreshadowed this

Half-beast, half-fish,

This powerful creature of land and sea.

Peoples settled here,

Brought to this island

The bounty of these seas.

Built towers topless as llium’s.

They make, they serve

They buy, they sell.

Despite unequal ways,

Together they mutate.

Explore the edges of harmony,

Searched for a centre;

Have changed their gods;

Kept some memory of their past

In prayer, laughter, the way

Their women dress and greet,

They hold the bright, the beautiful,

Good ancestral dreams

Within new visions,

So shining, urgent,

Full of what is new.

Perhaps having dealt in things,

Surfeited on them.

Their spirit yearn again for images,

Adding to the dragon, phoenix,

Garuda, naga, those horses of the sun

This lion of the sea.

This image of themselves.