I remember...part One.

Transient episodes of my life,

A flicker on the movie screen of my existence,

Moments of darkness

Moments of light

Episodes of my life!

I remember...

Dying in the dark as hands press down to suffocate me...

Who knew that a pillow could be deadly?

I remember...

My sixth birthday cake,

The oh-so-sweet icing,

That my mother couldn't bake

The colours tantalising.

I remember...

A scissor-pierced hole in my palm

Painfully red and overflowing,

My stepgranny holding it tenderly and calm

Admonishing her daughter who had done the deed

Bandaging and keeping me from harm

I remember...

A tie for first place,

At the end of Primary Two,

599 out of 600,

In the darkened hall, my parents witnessing,

Guilty suppressed pride awaited my prizegiving.


I remember...

A wizened old man,

Darting into the driver's seat,

Jerking a lever violently,

Fear and danger flashed transiently,

But he merely pulled the brake to prevent the car descending,

Into a drain suddenly,

My mother was buying vegetables calmly.

I remember...

The deep end of a pool,

That threatened to engulf me,

As I clung to a superhero who could save me,

While he lied that I could do it like him, see?

The superhero gave up and failed me,

Paving the way for an old lady,

Who,with patience and kindness,

Finally taught me how to swim,

And the indomitable value of the spirit.


I remember...

Another public pool,

That in my ecstatic excitment,

I jumped in with my shoes on, like a fool,

Cousins,elders and workers laughing uncontrollably,

Silence was my only garment,

Embarrasment burned brightly, and without mercy.



I remember...

My brother and I squabbling,

Coming to blows unthinkingly,

He used his physical advantage to overpower me,

I rushed for the kitchen knife suddenly,

Pointing it at him to see,

Only a still potent conscience,

Prevented me from using it violently.


I remember...

My father's rare-as-a-pink diamond praise lucidly,

For coming in fifth in school,

His words still ring loudly,

The fuzzy goodness was cool.


I remember...

Submitting my test,

to receive a lower score,

The pride in my heart soaring,

That was when honesty was both the foundation and the door.


I remember...

Wobbling on two wheels,

Falling almost in slow motion,

A flash of red lights,

Clambering out of a crevasse with no notion,

Until a middle-aged man staggered,

And I stared down at a red river,which seemed an ocean,

And my upper lip had split to my nose,one tooth daggered.

As, through the rest of the year I staggered.

I remember...

Pushing and panting my unwieldly bag of overgrown bones,

To four laps of the school at 15 years of age,

Because I was told by authority, despite my heart's groans.

I was all alone, thinking my seniors had gone faster in the last stage,

The authority figure praised me at the finish, my seniors glares could be stones,

As they were berated for leaving out the last lap, willpower's gauge.

My brother disapproving glance said: 'Spoil sport.'


I remember...

A big muscled man,

Striking up a conversation with me,

Innocent, yet too friendly seemingly,

Treated me with more kindness than anyone previously,

Alas, the beginnings of affection was yet to be.


I remember...

A dash of red on my white innocence,

For an unproven accusation,

My quick reflex of emptying a dark soft drink in return,

Wetting a wolf in sheep's colours,

Two strokes of the cane came swiftly,

Painful solely for their pure injustice.

I recall years later, the arbitrator's apology:

"We should never have caned you."

Rang in vindication that came too slowly.

I remember...the Episodes of my Life.

Did they teach me any? My life unfolds inexorably...