"Woman charged $608 for lobster la mian"

SingPoWriMo 2023 Day 3.

The prompt is to write a poem in Singlish. I will try. I speak it everyday.

photo by Pexels at pixabay



"Woman charged $608 for lobster la mian"


I never said that hor, it was in the news. Or some social media feed. Then if you look at the picture, the dish does look like a plate of vomit. The eater said one hor. Also cannot see the lobster. For that price? No wonder the woman kao pei kao bu. But never ask the price in the first place meh? Or look at the menu? Die die must eat here meh? I think some people are blur like sotong, or so rich till dun care. I wish I am rich liddat hor. Then can eat lobster noodle also. But liddat in the picture, I also complain one even if I got money to burn. Talking about money, that 600+ can fly budget to Oz and eat the lobster there. Lagi more fresh. Maybe can also throw in scallops, prawns and if you want, hum. (hum very expensive now, the char kway teow uncle told me). Okay lah, the kopitiam downstairs just renovated and open, let me see what I can get there. La mian?


06/04/2023
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Notes :

blur like sotong : used to describe a clueless person. Sotong is Malay for squid, which squirts ink to escape from predators. The ink makes it hard to see.
char kway teow : a stir-fried dish of rice noodles.
die die must try : something so great the person must try, no matter what.
hum : blood cockles.
kao peh kao bu : complain. Usually a big complaint. From Hokkien literally meaning 'cry father cry mother'
lagi : Malay word for more, greater or further.
la mian - "pulled" noodles, i.e. hand-made noodles.
liddat : like that
uncle : a male who is middle-aged or older, not necessarilly a relative and especially not well acquainted. The female form is auntie.
hor, lah, meh :(also mah, leh, siah as other examples) these are discourse particles occurring at the end of a sentence. It does not change its grammatical meaning, but how it is spoken changes the meaning or tone of the sentence, for example indicating annoyance, disbelief, amazement , etc.

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CNA Insider - How Singlish Went From 'Cannot Make It' To National Hero | Singlish: Why We Talk Like That? - Part 1

(It's a bit longish, but interesting.)

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© cheong lee san ( dsnake1 ) 2023

minus one

This was a challenge on Day 2 of SingPoWriMo 2023 (Singapore Poetry Writing Month). It was to write a "liwuli". A what? Okay, description below.

photo by Samuel Ramos at Unsplash



minus one


It should not be this way of course, a hard cookie crumbling. It is unfair for both of us. And chemo is not cheap either.

It is now a night of waiting
quick footsteps
cold coffee.

Have you seen tracers firing into the night sky, are they like red ribbons?



02/04/2023
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A liwuli is a poetic form deriving from South East Asian rhetorical traditions. It consists of 3 stanzas:

• the first stanza contains exactly 31 syllables in the form of a prose poem, and should be phrased entirely in terms of instructions.
• the second stanza consists of 14 syllables, and is broken into 3 lines (the length of each line is up to the writer as long as its 14 syllables).
• the third stanza consists of 19 syllables, broken into as many lines you want. the third stanza should be phrased entirely in terms of questions.

When properly executed, it is a very beautiful form.

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The Strawbs - The Winter Long

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© cheong lee san ( dsnake1 ) 2023