Their One True Glade

By The Glades at Tanah Merah
Construction workers sleeping by the shade
Next door at Bedok Ria Condominium
Ang mohs sleeping by the pool.
The sun for fair-skinned women
The shade for dark-skinned men
Toasting and sizzling their melanine
To get the perfect shade of pink
Where for one the sun is too much
For the other it is never enough
Embalming their dark brown arms
Preserving their natural born tan.
They sprawl on plastic deck chairs
Bodies wearing towels and sun hats
They sprawl on patches of green
Bodies wearing yellow hard hats
Long trek pants and mud boots
Orange bikinis and black swimsuits
By the blue of the pool
As they build a concrete Glade
Here in this shade
Is their one true glade.