seems half the work of weddings nowadays
is all about the asking. bigger better
bangs and bucks, and every suitor sets a
higher bar for better men to raise:
flash mobs and fireworks and fighter rides –
the shock and aww is how a bride computes
your manhood, though the snazziest of suits
will sink without a rock of proper size.
is there an issue of sincerity
if over coffee, talk turns by and by
towards the prospect of an hdb?
would it be disrespectable if i,
while at a hawker stall, drop to a knee,
and place a tissue packet on your thigh?
Editor's notes
This is a culturally recognisable act. In hawker centres, which can get very crowded around mealtimes, people in the know often reserve (chope) seats by placing small items of little value on the tables to indicate that it has been taken. This is stereotypically a packet of tissue paper, which may have gained more of a cultural iconicity due to being possibly the least effective territorial marker conceivable.
The idea here then is that the receiving party of the proposal is chope-d in a manner that is usually used for tables, providing food for thought because the process of reserving a table is upon further thought really quite similar to that of reserving a marriage partner. Both are chope-d with minute objects that only make sense because they have been imbued with cultural meaning.
