- Deferred Sayings for Future Occasions
“擔沙填海—了戇工”
“Carrying the sand to fill the sea—a fool’s work”
A Hokkien saying
Caddying the Sandman to filter the shit—a follower’s wern.
Chin-chai the syntax to fulsomate the sayang—aphasia wanze!
Commie the salariat to festoon the scaramouch—a Figaro witling!
Commodus the Sacerdotalist to filibuster!—the sauf a familial wee.
Cambodia the Singapore to fax the simulacra—a phallic wisteria!
Committing the sin to—fuck the sin! A fag’s wanion.
Cunard the Succedanea to Fulham the Steinweg!—a factious waiting.
Cantillate, “The Schistous!” to fabiform the sedition—a facial walkie-talkie.
Caliban: “The syncrete to fumigate the speech!”—a fertility’s wrackful.
Conditioner the sebum to follicate the scalp—a faux wig-wearer.
Come the shop to find the self—a fervent whichsoever.
Colonialist, the Stamford to forcipate the Success—a fair word!
Contain the scaturient to foreclose the sensifacient!—a foeticide writing.
Coddling the students to free the secession—a forfex wending!
Chemise, the sartorial to follow the straitjacketing—a fashionable wariness.
Combinant the sayings to frictive the slang—affective witticisms.
Cack the cyberspace to frack the solution—a facia Wikipedia.
When I told my grandmother that much of Marina Bay Sands is built on reclaimed land, she replied me with a Hokkien saying that is now the basis of this poem. More accurately, it is a 歇后语 xiēhòuyǔ (literally: “a saying with the latter-part suspended”) which is often figurative and riddle-like. The poem riffs on on the linguistic DNA of the original saying to create a set of riddles perhaps unsolvable.
