Touched
I am again in a rush to get home.
Yet it just keeps raining, heavier now.
I crossed the first junction. There’s still one more.
The light turns red. It means I have to wait.
There are no cars at all. Shall I still wait?
And in this rain, I want to cross right now.
My foot sticks out, I start to move forward.
Maternal is the voice which calls to me,
“Cross not, ah tee*, please do not take the risk.
The fine is one hundred dollars. Cross not.”
I turned and saw the face whose voice touched me.
Her umbrella shading me from the rain.
It was an old granny. Strangers though we
may be, I feel her warmth surrounding me.
Lionel L
(25 Jan 2000)
*Hokkien form of addressee to a younger male
