Aboard Bus No. 155 This Night

I
It doesn’t travel from point A
to point B; it leaves point A
for a meandering loop,
from its central heart
to its eastern parts, and
returns to point A:
an endless Ouroboros.

II
Leaving Toa Payoh,
where I had spent my childhood,
it travels through Upper Aljunied,
where I had spent my adolescence,
to Joo Chiat,
where I’m living in my adulthood.

My life:
encompassed by a single bus route;
yet, the life I’ve lived,
the life I’m living,
and the life I’ll live,
it never did, and – I suppose –
never will,
unfurl as straightforward
and direct
as a bus route.

How many more wrong turns?
How many more bypasses, U-turns,
and detours will I make
before I finally reach my
destination?

What is my destination;
where is it?

III
Sitting in the brightly lit interior of the bus,
I watch my thoughts fly by – cars on the nighttime road;
my emotions the many shining headlights flashing by
like fireflies.

And then, before I realize it, I have arrived.