Day 4 Living Purgatory [Ryanna]

Living Purgatory 
   Narrow stairwells,
        Narrow minds, 
            Twisting, turning, 
                 Cluttered memorabilia, 
                     A chapter comes to a close. 
                 Fresh coat of paint, 
            Plaster surgery, 
        Can't hide cracks,
 Don't forget memories.  
         Haunting shadows, 
            Trapped in the past, 
                  No closure for the dead, 
                                 Stuck in limbo. 
                           People change, 
         Unless they're not people, 
     Husks of what once was, 
  Unable to accept what is,  

Our Tiong Bahru. 

I wrote this poem to reflect my thoughts about gentrification, and how urban living has impacted us as a society, and more importantly the older generation. This poem includes imagery of Tiong Bahru, and the small flats that have been refurbished there. There are many stages in purgatory, and I reflected this in my poem. In the beginning when people lose something important to them, they cling onto their memories, collecting little trinkets and taking photographs in hope of preserving what they know. They refuse to accept what has been lost, which is reflected in “Narrow stairwells, / Narrow minds,” In this case, the old buildings that have been torn down and renovated are lost. Next, they try to cover up what is gone, to prevent these bittersweet memories from causing sadness. However, despite all their efforts, the truth cannot be hidden, and the sadness of losing something cannot be covered up. People renovate these buildings and flats, repainting them and giving them “Plaster surgery” and a new lease of life, but those that had attachments to the old building would be unable to forget what once was. They are unable to progress further and look towards the future, because the past haunts them, and this conflict between their past and present can be very disorientating. This is made worse when the older generation who are no longer working, and thus are unable to afford the higher rent of gentrified areas like Tiong Bahru, end up having to leave their old homes. When they revisit the area, their old apartments and places where they have made fond memories are now hipster cafes and bookshops, cutting off their ties to these buildings and leaving them as mere husks of what they once were, much like the buildings themselves.