Greetings earthlings, I'm back again with another poem, not a sonnet this time! But there's something special about this particular sonnet. First let me give you a brief explanation of the Singapore Education System.
Alright, so every student has to go through 6 compulsory years of Primary School. After that, they go through the Primary School Leaving Examination, or PSLE for short. Now students who wish to further their education select which Secondary School to go to, there are 4 different types of Secondary School Education but for the sake of summary, I'll only talk about 2 of them. First, there is the Express stream, which caters to the majority of students. These students go through 4 years of Secondary School education and then, after taking their 'O' Levels, can choose to either go to the Institute of Technical Education (ITE), Polytechnic, Junior College, or Millenia Institute, which is basically JC except it covers the course material in 3 years instead of the usual 2 years. Secondly, there is the Integrated Programme, which is a 6 year course, which skips the 'O' Levels.
Now let's talk about me; I took the PSLE and managed to clinch a space in Victoria School. I applied to go for the Integrated Programme, through a back door, in year 2. Call it sheer luck, intelligence, or a combination of the 2, but I managed to get through into Temasek Academy, which is one of the schools which offers the Integrated Programme. Those who applied were filtered by means of tests and interviews until only the ones who were to be admitted were left. Of those tests, there was a Mathematics Aptitude Test and an English Test. For the English Test, we were asked to write either a short story or a poem which included the words 'It was only then that I realised that I was colour-blind'. That was one of the first times I wrote poetry, and I can honestly say that if not for that test, I would probably never have got into it in the first place. Without further ado, the poem, which I wrote for my English Test:
There once was a girl
By Oliver Nolastname
There once was a girl,
A very pretty girl.
She made me want to skip and dance and twirl,
Yes, indeed, she rocked my world.
I sat behind in English Class,
And thrice a day, I would ask:
Would you like help with your books?
She was smart, kind and had good looks.
She always said no,
And told me to go.
It broke my heart,
That hers was so hard.
I hatched up a plan,
To make me her man.
She would not say no,
Because I would make it so.
So I wrote a song,
For her heart I did long.
The feeling I had,
It could not be wrong
Violets are red,
And roses are blue.
I just want to say
That I love you.
I sang through the first line,
Then the second and third.
Thinking of the prospect,
Of making her mine.
She always said no,
And told me to go.
She would not this time;
For it was a song that did rhyme.
When I got to the fourth line,
I realized that my poem,
Did not make sense.
It was only then I realized that I was colour-blind.
Usually this would be the part where I write the post-mortem for my poem but in this particular case, I think that it would hardly be necessary, as this poem contributed to my getting into Temasek Academy. I might like to add however, this poem might seem a bit rough around the edges because I didn't have enough time to file it down and finish editing. After all, they gave us half an hour.
Now, for my signing off. I'd like to wish everyone out there a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Here's to a good year ahead!
Oliver Nolastname
