what do you know
Sometimes the giants are amongst the most ordinary...
photo by Free-Photos at pixabay
what do you know
she kept silent,
the old lady, bent with the years,
bags of groceries in one hand,
an agitated grandson on the other.
most probably she had seen it all,
her flight from China to escape poverty,
to another hard life in a foreign land,
to the darker ages, a World War,
surviving on tapioca roots,
evaded Sook Ching, and the massacres,
staying plain,
hoping not to get raped,
staying sane,
squalid huts to call home,
soon the terrors of Konfrontasi,
the uncertanties of Merger,
and Independence,
the horrors of racial riots,
then blissful marriage,
giving birth to sons, daughters,
raising them, nurturing them
saving the coins to build
a business
a home
a country
and
the little boy, indignant,
cellphone-ipad-game console generation,
muttered
"what do you know, grandma?
what do you really know?"
written 19/04/2009
revised 19/07/2018
*****************
This was intended for Wednesday's Midweek Motif prompt for "Greatness" at Poets United. ☹️
“A great man is always willing to be little.”
― Ralph Waldo Emerson
© cheong lee san ( dsnake1 ) 2018
what do you know
she kept silent,
the old lady, bent with the years,
bags of groceries in one hand,
an agitated grandson on the other.
most probably she had seen it all,
her flight from China to escape poverty,
to another hard life in a foreign land,
to the darker ages, a World War,
surviving on tapioca roots,
evaded Sook Ching, and the massacres,
staying plain,
hoping not to get raped,
staying sane,
squalid huts to call home,
soon the terrors of Konfrontasi,
the uncertanties of Merger,
and Independence,
the horrors of racial riots,
then blissful marriage,
giving birth to sons, daughters,
raising them, nurturing them
saving the coins to build
a business
a home
a country
and
the little boy, indignant,
cellphone-ipad-game console generation,
muttered
"what do you know, grandma?
what do you really know?"
written 19/04/2009
revised 19/07/2018
*****************
This was intended for Wednesday's Midweek Motif prompt for "Greatness" at Poets United. ☹️
“A great man is always willing to be little.”
― Ralph Waldo Emerson
© cheong lee san ( dsnake1 ) 2018
Labels: family, life, old age, prompt, Singapore, social issues, war
posted by dsnake1 at 8:50 PM
17 Comments:
I had to smile at the irony of the question
"what do you know, grandma?
what do you really know?"
This is such a profound write Cheong Lee san
Much🌺love
thank you, Gillena.
glad you found it ironic. :)
Wow. That gave me chills. Such a powerful piece.
This is painful. So often the young think that the OLD know nothing, have experienced nothing. The young think it is they who have the answer. But, in reality, it is the wisdom of the 'old' who might have the power to save the world if the young would put away their phones and really listen!
Oh, the stories that people carry in their bosoms and the relentless passing on of our times are so well told in your words. That question, in the end, defines all that we take for granted, for if we look around be it in our relations or otherwise, there is so much more to know. The experiences of a life lived through decades of tumult and reverie are to be shared.
I remember asking my grandmother (who is no more) about the journey from the other land when our subcontinent was partitioned post-independence. The lines on her face and her wry smile said so much, unlike her words.
-HA
A powerful write. Her grandson is in for a surprise when he’s old enough to understand.
thank you, peppermint radio, for the visit. :)
Oh my, this is it exactly. She survived so much, is a font of history, wisdom and knowledge - untapped - as the young ones dismiss her with "what do you know?" I want to sit with her and hear all her stories.
My goodness! I read this poem several times wondering the entire time just how strong such people truly are.. to go through experience of poverty😥 of war and much more.
This was a stop-think-reread piece. Amazing.
Mary,
i think this is the painful reality of life nowadays. the young of today are so much different from the young of our days, partly because of technology. but the young will inherit the earth and they will grow old too. :)
Anmol,
sometimes silence speaks more than words. but what wonderful stories we will hear, what fascinating oral history we can learn from them.
thank you for your insightful comment. :)
Vivian,
he sure be!
Sherry,
this is an actual scene i saw some years back in the streets. i wanted to tell the kid you are having a good life now because of them. but he will know it one day when she's gone.
Sanaa,
thank you! :)
Chrissa,
thanks! :)
Is that generation gap widening so quickly that it will soon become unbridgeable? A fabulous sense of history and life and discord.
Ah yes. It's always the way. I sometimes hear younger people speculating on all manner of great questions and think, 'I could tell you that answer' but I keep my mouth shut because it simply never occurs to them there could be an answer if they have not yet thought of one themselves.
Thotpurge,
maybe not, and i hope not too. the lines of the modern world are changing and both sides do really need each other. :)
Rosemary,
:)
yes, they will learn as they go on, and i think it is okay to keep quiet and let them figure it out themselves.
Oh, this is so well done. Love the picture, the retrospective of the life, and the dismissal by the gameboy generation. Well-planted irony. We used to value elders, didn’t we...
Your words as so beautiful, so profound in their wisdom Cheong Lee san.
What does youth know - oh so very little.
Anna :o]
Sarah,
we used to value them, but am not too sure about it now. (i am writing about it from my own cultural perspective and observations) :)
Anna,
:)
yes, and we were once young too.
in the poem, the boy probably thinks poorly of his grandma's knowledge of technology, but the grandma's experience of life is probably way far ahead.
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