One I Hold Dear

• Semyih Lum, Grade 9
• Poetry
• 2011

Her short brown hair, kept neat by herself,
framing her oval face.
Her once warm brown irises, are now covered by a pale blue circle,
due to tears flowing down her face, grieving over a lost love.
Her heavy, layered eyelids, barely holding up.
Her once pale skin, now turned wrinkled and tanned,
by the merciless hot sun.

Her smile brightens when she sees us, switching on a switch,
making her glow from the inside out.
Her blue veins visible, through the paper thin skin of her hands,
just slightly covering the knobby bones of her fingers.
She’s strongly built, but is easily broken, like a glass vase,
hard to the touch, but when dropped, it shatters.

She was a survivor, covered in mud while hiding in basket,
praying for peace.
She is a small child, throwing a tantrum,
at all the little imperfections in the big world.
She is a rhino, charging,
head-on at anything blocking her path.
She is a bat, blinded by love,
at something that is ruining her.

She is a victim, robbed of her sleep,
waking at a quarter past three.
She is a predator, always trying to stay on top of the leader board,
but cowers at the sight of someone bigger.
She is a strategist, always planning what to buy,
sometimes repeating it a few times, an odor erupting from her fridge.
She is a scientist, always experimenting with food;
no matter good or bad, it always ends up in our stomach.

Her name is Ling Ho Chew, she is 71 years old and almost at the end of her journey.
She is my grandmother, and although I can see her faults, I really love her!