I walk through this green and sprawling campus,
Passing through, over, under, and past the many spaces between:
The green space of the hill between my office and the Arts Canteen;
The now forgotten space where the old Arts Canteen char kway teow stall used to be;
The transitory space where the rooster and his family have found a place to live.
I walk through the corridors and hallways,
Passing along the yellow brick road
(Does anyone call it that any more?)
Where so many students have walked over the years,
And I wonder what lines these walls have heard spoken.
I walk through the lecture halls and tutorial rooms,
Hearing echoes of voices, some of them familiar, others less so.
Are these lines a luxury we can now afford?
Do these lines now dare to raise their voices?
They may appear to be only lines,
But they are never only lines.
Because “you need lines
to add up this same old story”.
And they are a luxury we cannot not afford.
Cover photo by Elisa Calvet B. on Unsplash, free to use under the Unsplash License.
