"For we are seven"

God deemed it befitting for Mum dan Dad
to have seven little princesses -
to keep them company, and to give them joy
looking out for each other, lovingly,
we grew up with the chicks and the ducklings -
but no pigs, no, nor sucklings,
just a family dog named Kopi...
household chores were never a worry -
and we had them all done, in a jiffy!
i was the cook, two others the washerlady,
one the the playmate, another the guardian,
and always one to babysit, the little baby...

After two girls, number three was up for giving:
"No, no," said our granny,"not my sweet little girl!"
so she was taken to live with granny ...
Then came number four, and again came that old aunty -
but this time she left in a hurry:
little Shim (Pure Heart was her name)
had red birth marks: one on her chest -
and the tip of her nose was red!
Dad looked at her and remembered clearly -
they had shot at a sow
on a trip, while off hunting:
they got the sow but the poor little piglet,
with blood at the tip of its snout -
and some dripping from its chest,
ran off squealing loudly;
and that had dad, no doubt,
been moved by the pitiful squeals...
so that little red patch
had saved our little fourth sister!

After that she took up the task of guardian:
at three, and still a baby herself,
she stood her ground, arms out-stretched, at the gate -
and scratched, and bit the old aunty on her hand
and shooed and pushed her off
and told her she coud not enter -
when she came to take a look at
our pretty little fifth sister!
(Dad loved her, too, with her jet black hair
she was sucking her little finger)...
so when chubby bubbly number six came,
the first one to be born in Kuala Trengganu -
the old aunty gave up trying,
and adopted someone else's baby sister;
finally when our youngest little sis was born
there was no more talk of adoption -
she had the fairest of skin,
and the loveliest pair of liquid eyes,
and became the mightiest of us all -
as we all Tuan-ed her,
(yes, that's what she's called);
our spokeswoman, together with little fifth sister,
who used to stand by Dad's elbow at breakfast time:
to get her little spoonful of butter!
(a taste that none of the others acquired)
so we became Mum's and Dad's seven...

Even when Shim was taken away from us
at the tender age of nineteen,
(she had a heart problem)
we are no different:
"for we are seven in all"
and will always remain so...
and when we read her secret diary -
all of us wept over her pain and suffering,
and all the beautiful poetry that she wrote -
while in pain, while suffering in silence,
fifth sis, who was a live wire,
lost her tongue,and all her fire -
she became ever so quiet,
going about her daily chores, in silence,
that we all feared for her health...
till she found God, and Christianity,
and He must have eased
all the pain and suffering
of losing a sister, so suddenly...
and i told myself:
if Shim could write so beautifully,
it has to come from a streak in the family,
and there must be someone else -
it has to run in the family...
so here i am, writing -
to carry on the legacy,
that Shim had started, in secrecy,
pouring out all her pain and suffering;
suffering the pain all alone -
to save the family from suffering
the pain of watching a loved one suffer -
that's our selfless little fourth sister...