Melaka Post office centre

The red ochre grasps you
the sunlight attracts
salt perspiration
the body reacts
the trees and the baskets
of ferns and cacti
and the raggy green fronds
that dance in the sky

chendol is sold from one
little stall
ice noodles green
sugar and all
pulped durian scooped
from a plastic tub
served rather hurridly
unlike a pub

I joined some polish guys
chewing the fat
showed them a crocodile
and where they sat
they asked me to join them
I did of course they
talked of chopin almost
right away

the river rolls by
green almost and
carries the odd plastic bag
its all planned
Pedicabs decked with blossoms
roll by
with their rather loud music
and I wonder why

the cobbles don’t work here
the traffic congests
pollution is high
the old lungs it tests
there’s not much to see
lots of rather cheap stalls
selling tat fancy that
its a shame and it galls

me really clearly
there’s nice things around
good souvenirs but in tat we are drowned
I pads and I phones
and many perspire
its not what I’d call
a place of true fire
the buildings are there
but the encumbent tat
spoils it all really
yea I smell a rat!
A heritage city could better
itself
with much higher class stalls
providing more wealth