Quarterly Literary Review Singapore
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Vol. 1 No. 3 Apr 2002

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The Schoolgirl Kills Herself After Failing An Exam

She jumps from the tenth floor of a housing block
into the brief wild terror of freedom, dies and transforms
into twelve paragraphs of newsprint in the Straits Times,
cool and objective, black and white, verifiable facts only.

We are told that her classmates are "shocked".
And that her parents refuse to comment. We know that
she scored 41 marks for her last exam paper, a fatal result.
A teacher describes her as a "quiet, hardworking girl".

We feel obliged to pause to reflect. We wish to search
our conscience. She was only eleven, we remind ourselves.
There must be others like her. There must be another way,
we suspect, for children to grow up in this country.

But yesterday's news is quick to slide into the grey of memory.
She will become another incidental casualty. We turn the page.
We forget. Again we trip and fall head first into the future,
down into the depths of a national urge to never stop excelling.

By Gilbert Koh


QLRS Vol. 1 No. 3 Apr 2002

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Return to Vol. 1 No. 3 Apr 2002


 
   
  Other Poems in this Issue

Old Folks Home
By Gilbert Koh.

The Couple Next Door
By Gilbert Koh.

Train Ride to Singapore
By Gilbert Koh.

The New Babel
By Leonard Schwartz.

Instructions From A Serial Killer
By Felix Cheong.

Post
By Ng Shing Yi.

Immense
By Low Ying Ping.

Dutch Disease
By Peng-Ean Khoo.

Hors Duh
By Peter Loh.

Mountain Air
By Jerome Kugan.

Grandmother, The Bride
By Karen Low.

 

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