Ballad of the Dragon Toa Payoh Dragon Playground
Pan Cheng Lui the evenings do not ever experience stage fright the sun always returns while basking in nursery rhymes if it rains all night everyone knows that at Block 28 the dragon is still silently tolerant he used to walk over carrying a bag that child from Toa Payoh, he climbed through the dragon observing its twisting body. No one believed the myth in this child’s heart just like no one believed that behind wave after wave of twenty-storey HDB blocks distant ships entered the port dragon heading southeast the wind rising, the boy longing for the mighty dragon’s wail
you didn’t see it? that sparkling dragon eye, the smiling dragon mouth Potong Pasir vegetable farmers in the streetlights completing the cries of life before the wakening of the city’s dreams an old temple recessed in the ground praying for good weather silent dragon, tolerant, has climbed through the man who has climbed through the dragon’s belly and dragon’s flip small stones adorned as dragon scales listen, memory displays an empty echo silent dragon, lonely and tolerant lush green lawn the dragon ballad sung by a new generation
_ Note: The Toa Payoh dragon playground, designed by HDB designer Khor Ean Ghee, was built in 1979. The 28 blocks that were its background have been razed to the ground. That was my home was for 17 years. The dragon head faced southeast, and on the road in front of it was the vegetable market where Potong Pasir vegetable farmers distributed their produce in the morning. Situated in front of Block 34, lower than the surface of the road, the Pu Zhong Temple was spectacular. From the 28 blocks of 20-storey HDB flats, Clifford Pier could be seen in the distance. The design of the dragon head, modified from the shape of a dragon, served both as a place for children to play and as a public sculpture. As the environment changed, it carries a past and looks forward to the future; the sounds of a new generation of children will continue to extend its role of merging joy with beauty. 17