OLDE SJI BRAS BASAH ROAD, 1971

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This poem is a memory lane visit to my olde school circa 1968 to 1971, in downtown Singapore at a street named Bras Basah Road (a Malay name which means "Wet Rice Road"). It was a Catholic tertiary school run by the De LaSalle brothers, and was known in short as SJI -- and named Saint Joseph's Institution.

I distinctly remember the old school football field and the focal point of our school boys' daily routine of football and more football. I was 16 years old then. Now I am 68 years! More than 50+ years since then.

There was a fence around that field where violet flowers aptly named Morning Glory grew on creepers growing wild. We boys used some of the purple buds as floral darts in our cheeky school boy antics shooting each other and having a good laugh, every now and then.

This poem came to me abruptly on that Friday morning as I was trying to write something nostalgic.


Journey Journal Page
OLDE SJI BRAS BASAH ROAD, 1971
By Leon Enriquez


Morning Glory
Florals on a fence
Violet blooms beauty
Plain in sparkling sense


Olde school field
By Bras Basah Road
Boys and football yield
To dawn’s purple load

~~~~~~~~~


Dawn now brings
Such sparkling creepers
Olde tints of fond flings
Such transient flowers


We recall
Days of yesterday
Sounds of lost footfalls
Echoes of school days

~~~~~~~~~


For a while
Till that harsh sun burns
Faded dying smiles
To the earth return


Brief your tale
On the dusty road
Yet your truth avails
Of brief surreal loads

~~~~~~~~~


Now here we
Go on our way there
To visit and see
To be yet nowhere


Old men think
Upon times now gone
Laughter on verge brink
Olde days and lost dawns

~~~~~~~~~


Lost school daze
Dribbling on that field
Our cheeky fond craze
Olde time humour yields


For a while
You and I and all
Taste feel and try smiles
To pile sweet and gall

~~~~~~~~~


Olde school grounds
Memory lane thoughts
New cityscape bounds
Olde souls recall lots


Lost yet found
Olde echoes call out
Floral fence abound
Hear sunny glee pout

~~~~~~~~~


Here by grace
Each to each olde souls
Journey quest we trace
Incomplete yet whole


By the way
A restless wit primes
Just another day
Grateful for our time

~~~~~~~~~


Those days tint
Our old boys’ refrain
Violet floral hints
On the rail fence strain


Morning Glory
Let’s not live in vain
But seed love’s fancy
As light sparkles plain

~~~~~~~~~

Leon Enriquez
05 January 2024
Singapore

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Silent One

Date: 1/6/2024 4:16:00 AM

A lovely nostalgic poem Leon..

Leon Enriquez
Date: 1/6/2024 4:49:00 AM

Dear Silent One: Thank you. Leon