You have no voice,

Authority is everywhere.

You are helpless in a corner,

That was what happened in school.

Behind pretty faces and nice words,

Lie the skeleton of a zombie,

A living death,

A cruel fate.

When one of the great kings laid in a graveyard,

Behold a pretty and pious young woman,

The deed was done,

And zombies were born.

Cruelty is the way the world works,

This is the zombie’s nature,

There is no reason-

Only the smell of blood.

Homework conscientiously done but with many crosses,

Were thrown in your face onto the floor,

Corrections were done and the snide answers were-

You just choose the other answer, isn’t it?

Poisoning is not murder,

Not to zombies,

In the school canteen with tantalizing food fare,

You are fed poison forced down your throat.

When one is alone and lost in school,

And a “kind” teacher asks why you are the way you are,

You said you missed a friend in pure loneliness,

The snide answer was whether you missed others too.

When poison is already steeped in your blood,

And your stomach is rotting and growing bigger,

You cannot do your physical education and you have no voice for your complaints-

You are yelled at and just ordered to run.

There is no choice,

You must leave school,

But you are stuck with no money,

You have to continue.

The pretty teacher’s family start making my life difficult-

Those zombies building smaller and smaller rooms in condominiums-

You are fired from any job you try to get,

And pay paltry salary in addition.

After finally struggling into university,

You are a threat,

You are studying at National University of Singapore,

And suddenly you wake up on a hospital bed and were told you have been in a coma for a few days.

These educator zombies…

They will not let matters rest,

Some tuition agencies are rogues,

Cheaters and liars.

Oh, to be a student at a Singapore school,

I have learnt cruelty is the game,

I have played it now for some two decades,

Are you so sure I will loose?