Kamal Kata

Kerja, kerja, kerja, kerja;
Dibayar, dibayar, dibayar, dibayar;
Kerja, kerja, kerja, kerja;
Dibayar, dibayar, dibayar, dibayar.

Berhenti kerja.

Berhenti dibayar.

Ahmad Zahirudin Ahmad Fauzi

Puisi Mat Jenin

Dikayuh basikalnya ke pohon kelapa,

Mat Jenin mengeluh aduh dan duduk,

Sambil mendongak menghitung rezekinya,

Jikalau, jikalau, jikalau, jikalau masuk.

 

“Jika sebiji aku kocekkan seringgit,

Jika sepuluh, sepuluh Ringgit lah!

Jika tiga puluh hari aku mengait,

Aku buat tiga ratus ringgit sudah!”

 

“Itu baru sepokok, belum dua pokok!

Jika dua pokok, aku ajak Si Deris tolong.

Aah… upah dia cukup untuk sebatang rokok,

Dalam sebulan, enam ratus masuk tabung!”

 

“Eh, Si Seman pun takde kerja –

Dia pun boleh datang bantu aku.

Kalau bertiga, Jenin dan Kawan-Kawan,

Masing-masing boleh penuhkan saku!”

 

Mat Jenin tidak berlengah, berdiri dan lari

Menceritakan ilhamnya kepada Deris dan Seman:

Deris kebingungan dan hanya menggeleng;

Seman pula tak makan saman, enggan, jangan.

 

“Oh, fikirku boleh berjaya usaha ku nanti,

Tapi kalau Deris dan Seman pun tidak mahu,

Apa pula lagi sepuluh kelapa hendak dijual beli.

Lebih baik kait sebiji, jual sebiji, tak penat bahu.”

Jikalau Deris dan Seman mahu berganding

Sudah tentu Mat Jenin boleh jayakan usahanya.

Sudah dikatakan Deris dan Seman  orang penting;

Usaha Jenin tak boleh niaga, tak boleh berjaya.

Walhal kalau Jenin ke Ali, Atan dan Husin,

Kamal, Lokman, Ghani, Usop dan Amin,

(Amin pulak kenal dengan si Raja),

Jenin boleh usaha lebih empat pokok kelapa.

Ahmad Zahirudin Ahmad Fauzi

08 Jun 2008

A Thanks of Sort

You have enthralled me countless times
(Of which I would not say I wish not!);
And you have thawed me from icy rot,
And sing me a song of dollars from dimes!
Of this latter I owe you my present day,
But with such meager meal I hope to pay?
What manner of selfish beast have I become,
To offer the sand for your glittering diamond dust?
But what matter of unsaintly tease I will become,
If to you the diamond but to her not even a crust?
Pray I to God that I will not sway,
And lose her heart and thus my way.

Pray I God I tempt not betray
Your friendship, her infinite stay.

Originally written in 1998

Complex. Self searching. Conflict. Between my love, and again, the Dark Lady.

Again, The Day

To Adelina Asmawi, for such grace in friendship.

Darn! Today has arrived again.
A day, twenty-one and back,
Some child in the nearby hospital
Cried to the world, `Hello!'

Eighteen years later she walks
Into lives of (un)lucky people,
Bringing bouquets of roses for all:
The strong and weak, the big and small.

(I myself had a share of her dawns,
Lulled by her scent and cut by her thorns!
Yet who have not thorns in their gardens,
So why play God and be her judge?)

Take and cherish the beauty with all pardons:
None is total, in the least a smudge.
Accept this thorny rose with glee and love,
As today is the twenty first up her trove.

Originally written in 1996

This poem was written as a birthday parody to Adelina Asmawi, or Labyrinth, on her 21st birthday. Here are some explanation on the stanzas:

The first stanza is free flow - the lines do not rhyme, the rhythm ecstatic. It carries my message to Adelina - "You don't know poetry!".

"Eighteen years later" does not refer to her age when this poem was written, but to our first meeting in University Malaya, Kuala Lumpur. The unlucky souls she treaded on included me, as well as many of my friends, with her intoxicating charm which we knew not was honey or poison.

And therefore, I did not want to judge her. She might be a real poison, but then again, she might be honey which turned into poison because of me. Only God knows.

However, it seems that I decided to become more positive of Adelina Asmawi by accepting her faults and only cherish her strong points. Admittedly, even after all this years, though our idea of greeting each other is to throw insults to one another, Adelina Asmawi, all in all, is indeed one of the best friendships I have ever had (did you notice that I refer to her as a "friendship", instead of a "friend"?)