This was a short story-poem excerpted from the book,"In Seach Of Words". The author is Jeffrey Lim Sui Yin.
Toby II
Sometimes,
We never awaken from our dreams.
A crowded bus at rush hour
Eager bodies push to get home
But Toby will take any seat he is accorded
It so happens that they give him one
Toby is dressed in a blue short sleeve shirt
Toby's face is wrinkled
Toby's hands are shaking
Toby has lost his dimples
Of long ago.
Bus pitches back and forth
Swaying with the rise and fall,
Toby is rocked gently by a traffic mother to sleep
Toby closes his eyes and dreams
Toby's quivering eyelids
Shield shy eyes that sometimes peek from their folds
At the angry,busy people
Toby has never understood them at all
He shrinks as a teenager brushes past him, rushing
He has nothing to offer prospective robbers
The wallet is just a happy self-deception
He
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