The Merlion, after Thumboo, Euripides and Trakr the dog

Not quite what was planned, but neither are we entirely
(ever) allowed free roaming privileges. My flooey love,
How you have arrived (ended up?) at this river, is a question

Left for future mastications to generate. Before deciding
Enough’s enough and sliding off the Lazy Susan quietly
Into the Sichuan spittoon in a selfless act of sacrifice

Or stupidity – none can swear, so who am I to sacrifice
A scale when the cuffs don’t add up?  We’ll blame it entirely
On a freak lightning or a pump malfunction… Quietly,

Mr Brunner, everyone has been cloned to scale lovingly
In the lab. Either that, or you’ll be flayed alive. Ha ha. Deciding
Which is the worse fate is an utterly laughable question

That will never compute in real life. Real life questions
My being. My forebears have made all the right sacrifices,
But who are your forebears? They won’t be deciding.

I stand on your tip, agape, about to come clean entirely.
We had shifted from ancient river mouth to tongue. Love,
Remember our first moonlight kiss under the susurrus

Of your spit while viruses, so shy, stand in line quietly.
Guilty as charged, who stands as cipher, mirror, question.
I could be any of your mellifluous salivations: Love

Thy family, but keep your enemies even closer. Sacrifice
One for greater good and don’t play-play, for never entirely
Am I a figment of your collective influenza. So deciding

Whether to grow paws, get a tummy tuck, or deciding
To just turn on, emit laser, do your civic duty quietly
For the replicants is a labial indecision that is entirely

Hokum. Nothing answer. Something learn. Everything question.
Our constituents? Stir cement fondue. Then mix sacrificial
Virgins with porcelain plates and red teacups. For the love

Of Dr Moreau, there is no mystery to it. (Except love
Itself. I have no vaccination for that.) They are deciding
How to stand and who to quarantine. Digits sacrificed

At the altar, it drags its tail and waddles past us. Quietly
Enters the witness box and surveys the present. Question
We must, despite mounting DNA evidence. I’m entirely

Turned on, love. Hraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawk, ptew! Quietly
In obeisance or ridicule, deciding what it is is a question
Begging mutual sacrifice: We need it and it us, entirely.

Notes:

1. Trakr was a German Shepherd who helped search for survivors in the rubble of the World Trade Center in the 9/11 terror attacks. Five puppies were cloned from the dog before it passed away in April 2009.
2. ‘Mr Brunner’ refers to Mr Fraser Brunner, a member of the Souvenir Committee and curator of the Van Kleef Aquarium, who designed the Merlion logo for the Singapore Tourism Board.
3. ‘Nothing answer. Something learn. Everything question’ is a reversal of a saying by Greek playwright Euripides.
4. ‘Dr Moreau’ is the title character of H.G. Wells’ 1896 novel The Island of Dr Moreau.