Life in Aussie

Mythic place
to a Malaysian town-boy,
you loom with all those icons,
symbolic of some National Identity.
KL, let’s be frank.
Do you know of your
International reputation
for smog
and oppressive federal government?
famous for your Twin Towers,
famous for your parliament building,
infamous for Anwar?

KL, you wondrous shopping mall,
you mighty conglomerate of business and finance
you stand so proud as the nation’s
heart and lung.
You are first in the news
best in entertainment.
Earliest to receive the latest TV stations
and always the one with the topdog schools.
You’re a hip nightspot, KL,
what is it about your presence
that has stolen so many Malay poems
about young and hopeful farmer’s sons,
travelling to you in search of a job?
They don’t have happy endings.
I know them, high school Malay poems.
They don’t have happy endings.

And all of your people,
oh, you KL people.
You are so KL
for not knowing much
about what’s outside your
little Silicon Valley.
Your handphone culture
Your Starbucks Coffee
Your theme parks and
Your world record flagpole.

You, cosmopolitan Metropolis
with all those nightclubs and
exciting hang-out spots,
I’ll always equate you
with your ugly bus station.

Notorious little capital.
KL, you are cold and rich and hip
KL, you yuppie city wearing beepers.
KL, why the hell are you so big?