the fat woman on the MRT

i once saw a fat woman on the MRT
headed for bukit batok
who insisted that it went to Lorong Chuan
and refused to budge, this way or that.

the driver moved the train with grim precision
in an orderly strict fashion
refusing to budge a single inch off the tracks
wait for lorong chuan to be opened,
wait for it to be opened,
he said on and on and on ...

The fat woman insisted on her way nevertheless
and rolled her fat watermelons down the aisle
imagining herself the bowling champion of the world
slim, attractive, svelte, with all the right moves
with bright lights shining upon her eloquence
or lack of it without the bright lights

then a skinny man with a curved moustache
entered the train with a newspaper
and observed the fat woman running up and down
waving to everybody, bowing several times
smiling broadly to stranger, tourist
child and adult, disabled, athletic,
orange, green, pink and yellow, brown
post and human and smiling advertisement

finally in a show of contempt,
he put out his skinny leg and tripped the fat woman
who went sprawling down
she knocked her head, her hair was crumpled
yet she got up finally
grabbed her watermelon, sliced it in two,
and as the skinny man looked on with glee
she prepared her coup d'gras
and skimmed watermelon wedges
over his haughty head
and a couple round his thin neck
as the passengers laughed nervously
and eventually broke out in applause
as the train finally came to a halt
in jurong east
and all was fine for that day at least ...