Shutting the Door

"One always has to know when a stage comes to an end. If we insist on staying longer than the necessary time, we lose the happiness and the meaning of the other stages we have to go through.

Closing cycles, shutting doors, ending chapters – whatever name we give it, what matters is to leave in the past the moments of life that have finished.

...

Before a new chapter is begun, the old one has to be finished: tell yourself that what has passed will never come back.

...

Closing cycles. Not because of pride, incapacity or arrogance, but simply because that no longer fits your life.

Shut the door, change the record, clean the house, shake off the dust.

Stop being who you were, and change into who you are."

Paulo Coelho

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10153779882551211&id=11777366210

How true!

Closing 2018, the above post is very apt. 

Actually i closed it the previous year in Sep. 

But the door wasn't totally closed tight. 

This Dec,  it has closed.  Tight.

Finally, Yes

The last vestige

Of membership.

The Apple

Returned. 

Returned in an afternoon

Of torrential rain. 

Pouring relentlessly. 

Perhaps the Sun should have been shining bright

And cheerfully. 

Finally,  no more. 

False Hopes

A promise.

So earnestly given.

Repeatedly.

To look into it. 

To get back.  

Silence after. 

The earnestness still fresh in mind

For its sincerity. 

Almost a year on. 

No hope 

From the reply. 

Such treatment

When one's old. 

The heart sobs.

And bleeds afresh. 

A Clique-less Existence

A CNA Insider story of the sisterhood of three Girl Guides.

What an envious camaraderie!

Looking on, 

One feels empty. 

Perhaps that's why people join such groups.

Girl Guides. Scouts.

Camaraderie from young till old. 

Perhaps one should have joined these in school. 

Instead of going for those that left more time for mugging. 

Perhaps.

From the emptiness of a clique-less  existence.

Girl Guides forever: A sisterhood that's lasted over 50 years - Channel NewsAsia

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/cnainsider/sisterhood-friends-guiding-legacy-trefoil-girl-guides-singapore-10590188?cid=emarsys-cna_20180805_0100_eNews4+-+Sunday+-+0740+%28wef+18+Feb+18%29_newsletter_05082018_cna&sc_customer=78d62bad-e9eb-4c1e-af47-93aeb3377c85&sc_src=email&sc_llid=85390&sc_lid=76876575&sc_uid=ykHxHiXxse

Once an X, Always an X ... so they say

Once an X, Always an X.

So they say. 

In all their comms. 

So positive.  So caring.

Away from the rah rah,

In the shadows, 

Some Xes axed.

No room for you, Ex-X.

(Though you have contributed. 

But that's in the past. )

You too big to be an X.

Too old, they mean perhaps. 

As younger ones take over. 

Once an X, always an X.

Except when you're too old.  

Though not yet of retirement age.  

Once an X, always an X.

Lol.

Designed for Failure

A friend told the boss, one of the selected few in the top echelons, that the job given to Her was heading Her for failure. 

Indeed, it was designed to be a self- fulfilling prophecy.  Their prophecy. Their real intent.

And with some in between,  ensuring the isolation and lack of opportunities to contribute. (Aim of end assessment being lack of contribution.)

Indeed, towards the end, it was along the path they designed, and aimed for. 

Out with the not-yet-old. 

Oh no, it's not ageism. She couldn't find a post.  Job fit issue. 

So convenient. One more senior post for the young talents. They must be happy. 

The service takes care of you.  

Indeed. 

Till you are penultimately old.

And despite your contributions. 

The baby goes out with the old used bath water. 

oooooooooooooooooo 

Quiet in Coventry

Back from a sojourn in pioneer land,

To a shrunken plot,

Much like in "Honey, I shrunk the kids".

Or like the imperial dynasty of old,

Land given away,

Leaving one a vagrant, almost.

A roof over the head,

A comfortable abode,

Offered by a kind soul,

With hospitality and kind neighbourliness.

Friends indeed.

A time to test the proverbial horse,

Whether it walks the mile with one,

In rain and storm,

Even when sent to Coventry.

Kept in silo-ed bubble,

In mental and intellectual isolation.

If not for kind souls above and laterally,

One would have been like the frogs in the well,

Kept in the dark.

What camaraderie at home,

What unity at home.

Hypocrisy approved, even if unsaid,

Presented always in undebatable reason.

Home it no longer was.

With finality, one closed the glass doors behind.

Closing the doors on them,

But keeping the heart open 

to those who have continued to be kind

despite the lack of stature.

A year of hurt,

Deep heartfelt hurt,

Deep sense of betrayal

From a home that one has put heart and soul in.

Sucking Up to the Powers

A short return
to a familiar place,
previously home

Familiar faces
Comrades-in-arms
Friends, one would have thought?

Alas, nary a look, nary a wave, much less a hello ...  :(

Didn't we fight battles together?
Didn't we groan over obstacles?
And thought of solutions?

Perhaps an over-sensitive heart
Perhaps in that big function hall,
one could not be seen

Perhaps

After all, no more business together
After all, no seat of power
After all ...
... no longer useful.

Power
How powerful
How influential
Power corrupts (the heart) indeed

A Common Destiny

From different parts,  they came. 

Old connections, past alliances.

Now together, new alliances,

Renewed friendship.

Energised for a common mission.

A common destiny.

Stealthily and Steadily

The light at the end

Of the gloomy tunnel,

A silo-ed tunnel in Coventry

Engineered by the need-to-know powers.

Off towards the light

Stealthily, stealthily 

For it be sensitive to earthquakes

Like Mom and Pop

As they man their store of olde

With the retro goods and unique finds 

The idyllic environment

With time to smell the roses

Stealthily, stealthily

For Kancheong Spider we are not 

Stealthily and steadily

We strive to work together

As one team

In reality and at heart. 

Bless us

As we go forth

Stealthily and steadily