Forever

I will remember this moment
Forever
Sitting on the cement steps
Looking at "my" dog
Not really mine at all
Though we both seem to think so

The yellow pom-pom tree
(Ill-knowing the fate that will befall it
When the typhoon comes in two weeks)
Stands
A scenic backdrop
For my nostalgic bliss

I may be leaving soon
Never to return
For all I know
But this frozen moment
This precious
Crystalline droplet of time
I will remember
Forever

Beggarman

Ragged he was in his tattered grey
With a real hunchback
Rattling his cup
And crying out those ubiquitous words
"One dolla!"
"One dolla!"

I beseeched my mother
And she handed over the chunky
Silver coins
Two or three

His smile
Toothless yet brilliant
Delighted me and I pled for more until
My mother
Confronted twice over with beggars
Assented

When the cup had clanked seven
Or was it nine times?
I'm not sure who was happier
Myself
Or the beggarman

And now
I look back across the years
And shake my head.

There's one born every minute

Pink Jellyfish

Stranded in a pool
By the tide
As I was stranded
On the beach
By the Sabbath
Smaller than a saucer
Pale rose pink
And in possession
Of invisible
Stinging tendrils
Apparently
As the unpleasant buzzing
Smarting
Burning in my little finger would attest.

Bamboo Snake

Five or six years old
Maybe seven
I had seen only one other

We'd been walking down the concrete steps
To the beach
When up ahead there was a commotion

Upon reaching them
(Those with the longer legs)
I saw it

Long, lithe, green
And dead
Once-supple body dried by that
Unforgiving sun
No threat to anyone

But this one was
Oh so alive
Winding its slender
Green way through the neighbours' hedge
A mere six or seven inches long
(Though I didn't think in such terms
At the time)
Delicate red tongue flicking rapidly
In and out
Tiny, shiny eyes
And I
I alone to see it

The delicious
Horrible knowledge
That this insignificant
Monstrous thing
Could end my life
Was not enough to keep me
From squatting down to study it
To imprint its deadly beauty
On my forever memory

After all
It was just a baby
And I
I was invincible.