Short Poems Penned By Public Officers

Poems About Work In The Public Service

Poetry comes in all shapes and sizes. Challenge invited several creative writers within the Public Service to share a few lines.

Any Other Business

PS, through Dir. For information, please.
Last night as I was leaving the building
a pair of Brahminy kites (haliastur
indus) took flight from the Treasury,
Level 11 to be precise, where staff
can form a view of the Supreme Court,

the CBD, and further still, the curved
hull of a hotel surfaced to the sky.
Long clean circles over the riverbank –
one, then the other danced past the Friday
crowd and disappeared, quick as a turn
of pedestrian traffic lights outside Funan.

In those minutes, I could only capture
so much of what transpired. Two shadows
on the screen, pixels rearranged into
some moving illusion of the truth, while
outside the frame of consideration
another world, dimly-lit, carried on:

mothers returning to the wheel once
their children were in bed, sons alighting
from swaying lorries to an evening’s rest.
Lesson learnt. The later it is, the harder
to get the focus right. Sometimes it’s
just the weather. More often, it’s the light.

Theophilus Kwek, MCI

PS: Permanent Secretary
Dir: Director
Brahminy kites: a medium-sized bird of prey

spring brings fresh yu sheng
wishes flying like fishes
‘PQ not me please’

Teo Yi Han, NCSS

PQ: Parliament Question

There was an inter-ministry committee
staffed by an overly committed secy.
The materials arrived
and by [Part 3 of 5],
our outlooks all crashed from the MB.