65/365

the lights fade
the currents reveal more screen
the previews start
the feeling of familiar nostalgia settles in

all those hours at the cinema
all the stories
in which i’ve been immersed
every time is a new promise
a journey into the self.

on this early saturday evenings
we sat as a family
in the flickering glow
of a projector.

connecting to a
korean farmer in arkansas,
reminded to my own past
as an immigrant child
with parents fighting
over money
and a visiting grand mother
and the need to stay connected
to a fading culture
as the wave of assimilation
threaten to crash over us all.

we are the same
all of us
in a theater
lost in the reverie of film.

“i’m proud of you.”
i tell my kids in the car
on the way home.

“watching a film paced
like that is not easy for
kids your age.”

they say nothing
as they lose themselves in their phones
again.

one them is the dj
playing a song for us
as the sun sets  
over singapore.