Television

It was a noisy flat,
Full of the bustle of busy lives.
But that was just noise;
To her, it was silent inside.

She rattled shut the gate.
Fluorescent light flooded the room,
But none of this brightness
Could outshadow the gloom
That hang in the air like
Rubber bands gaudily in rows
In the kitchen, like dust
Adhering itself to the brooms.

With a rustle she dropped the red
Plastic bag on a tabletop
That wasn't small enough for two.
The stall owner had said,
"Here's two portions, I know
That it must be hard on you."

A high whine mixed itself in
To the ambient un-sound,
And she caught a glimpse
Of a family advertisement.

The commercial break had ended.
The National Day Parade was back.
Our country! The seeds it had sowed!
We should pay our pioneers back
In kind, was the line the message went
Something along, unabashedly loud.

She watched the little green men
March around on the TV screen
Like children's toys, immaculate.
Dancers barely in their teens
Filled the canvas of the stage,
A picture of youth, girls and green.

Chewing on glistening white
Chicken breast and rice,
She watched a happy family
Of the future do their happy
Family things, and thought
About how it would be nice
For everyone to eat chicken rice
At her table that was not small enough for two,
But that was enough to encompass something much bigger than numbers or words,
Something that surpassed quantity in every shape, way or size, something she had never seen or heard,
But once always knew was there.

Wouldn't that be nice?

Her quiet chewing seemed to fill
The flat. He was always there to
Chew with her, that was until
He no longer was, of course.

The couple from the future
On her television screen
Cuddled with their grandchildren.