Injured

Mother took us for a walk,
my elder brother and I,
We strolled along Ipoh Road,
Maxwell Camp passing by.

Surrounded by dense jungle
full of undergrowth,
With monkeys high up in the trees
peering at people below.

Somewhere by the roadside,
a post office pillar box was made,
With its daily letter collection times
engraved on black metal plates,

It was my habit to run to the box
and tap and rattle those plates,
"Tap tap tap" I was wont to go,
"Rattle rattle" in reply they would state.

That evening there was something more
than just noisy tapping and rattling,
For suddenly from behind the box,
out jumped a monkey, very angry looking.

Its claws were sharp
Its canines strong and pointed,
Its front paws grabbed my left leg
on my left thigh its sharp teeth landed.

My mother and my brother shouted
and frightened off the jungle goon,
I was left shocked and crying in pain,
with blood flowing from deep wounds.

A kind old man stopped to carry me up
in his arms, all stained with blood.
Another passerby flagged down a taxi,
to the hospital to be brought.

I was carried into the taxi
by the kind-hearted old man,
Telling the driver, "Send them there!"
"As quickly as you can!"

At last we reached the hospital
Accident and Emergency zone,
The doctor on duty rushed out from his room
to attend to me alone.

Forty stitches did I get
that evening in surgery,
My left leg was in a bandage
my eyesight became blurry.

I grew up the rest of my years in school
with long and ugly scars
"What are those on your leg?"
my classmates would often ask.

Now more than fifty years have passed
since that night near Maxwell Camp,
"What's that on gong-gong's leg?"
my grandson asks his gramp.

20191029
#Poetry #PoetryByHaroldHuang #Inktober

Injured