In The Nick of Time (3)

                                                                                                      Attribution: Hank
Image:  Rahman is standing extreme right (with arms akimbo) Hank is sitting extreme left. Sham who was saved from drowning is standing 2nd from left (wearing beret) Aziz Rahman (Tan Sri) is sitting next to Hank

This poem was written by my buddy Rahman in remembrance of an episode that happened during our Kelantan River expedition way back in 1963. Rahman was the skipper of the bamboo raft christened 'The Kon Tiki'. We were then just teenagers cruising downstream.  Hank was the one who jumped into the swirling waters and saved one of our buddies Sham from drowning. A narration of the episode was posted earlier on (here)

Hank had connected with Rahman a few months back. Surprises of surprises Rahman had the inspiration to pen this poem somehow and extended a copy yesterday. Hank felt so elated and took the liberty to post it for our OpenLinkNight with Rahman as a guest poet.

A POEM FOR HANK

On a bamboo raft

Pretentious Kon Tiki

A teen’s plaything

Barely afloat

On a river of memory

So far… so long ago

Things we do

Cause we have to

Heaven knows

Hell to pay.

And you among sordid

Souls laugh at

Mortality as teens do

Swam and swam until

Fate intervenes, endures

The frailty of muscles.

Things we do

Cause we have to

Heaven knows

Hell to pay.

At once Hank jumped

“In the nick of time…”

Into waters deep

To hell, with

Fangs of denizens,

There’s a life to keep

Things we do

Cause we have to

Heaven knows

Hell to pay.

What Hank ought to do

Save his life too

Yet Hank denies

The one future soul

Then, away from Azreal

Was it for real?

That instant some dreams sank

And remain there to this day,

Perhaps the life we saved

Was our own, resurface

Today as solace to soothe

Tragedies of having grown old

Things we do

Cause we have to

Heaven knows

Hell to pay.

Rahman Daud

Kuala Lumpur;

26 Jan 2014.

Submitted for d'Verse OpenLinkNight week #130