those kampong days


when we had our bath where all could see

used the monsoon drain as our lavatory

went about bare foot all day long

had on only one layer of garment

those were carefree days


when catching fighting spiders

chasing kites that went untethered

trapping longkang fish with our hands

threading for tubifex worms in the sand

gave us much more fun then

than enrichment and other

structured things of now


when playing cards and tikam tikam

inventing games with improvised stuff

climbing trees to grab the ripening fruit

shooting birds with home-made catapult

filled our carefree days with boundless fun

kampong days must have been happy ones


falling down (from climbing trees)

getting cuts (from going about bare foot)

were all part of growing up


riding bicycle

pedalling hard

until the chain slipped

and the bottom hit hard


raining days were even more fun

playing in the rain with kawan kawan

when water overflowed into the house

we had fun scooping and chucking the water around


those were the days

when 'why worry, be happy'

was our maxim for the day, every day

how we still hanker for those nostalgic days!

(on friday, as we walked the petai trail, three of us were reminiscing about our kampong days)