The Day Before The Tsunami In Phuket 2004 Poem by john tiong chunghoo

H! That white boy
Skiny, thiny thing
Did god claim him too?

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christmas day
i saw the boy
the white boy
skiny, thiny thing
who could only be
two scores of age
smiling so
innocently in phuket
the elders surrounding him
cajoling
i saw a little boy
black plump little thing
barely two, i guess
almost nude, running
carefree, near the sea
close to the waves
and into the waves
looking, discovering
danger, no,
a thousand miles away
i saw a grandad
jumped a few steps
as he ran
a little girl
trailing behind
did the same
a breeze
chilled us
refreshed us
in the splendour
of the setting sun
the rays that dilated
our pupils
so that everything
became so dreamy
in that already
paradisical setting
i saw a mother
her satiated self
sitting on a towel
her dreamed holiday came true
surrounded by teenagers
oh! that warm smile
of love from a mother!
i cried over life
transience too
over mother!
i saw the white men
executives of
some conglormerates
stressing out
a mishmash of tired nerves
pampered by the sea
the cool wind,
the sand,
the Thai women,
their reassuring
and status
confirming
touches and beer
the patong beach
christmas day dusk
endless waves of joy
swept through the souls
the hundreds of foreign souls

the white boy,
the skiny thiny thing
the boy i turned back
to take so many looks
the young child
playing by himself
near the harmless mass of water
and so many others
their last holiday?
the wave of joy now
overtaken by waves
waves, tsunami scale grief
the waves, the relentless waves
that roared
kill, kill, kill
all over the Indian Ocean
Oh! that skiny little white thing
with that lovely smile
those mysterious successive waves
of pain that sweep through me
did god take him too?