My Grandpa

BY FIDELMA SAEVARU

The Old Man, (image) from a short-story by John Kaupa Kamasua

He was four foot three 
With silver grey hair free 
Big rimmed glasses guarded two brown eyes 
Eyes so cloudy, dimmed by ages toil. 

Hard working hands so tough 
Feet that walked million miles 
Back bent from laborious work 
And two missing teeth replaced by plastic duplicates 

His voice was beautifully magical 
Naturally shaky and made everyone wakey 
Melodious sounds escaped the guitar at his strum 
A mixture of instrument and voice No one would dare ignore. 

An entertaining storyteller he recounts 
Stories of old, stories so true 
The war, the White man 
The country before now 

A panel beater he was 
The best I have ever seen 
Go bring in your wrecked cars 
He’ll return with no scars 

A book worm of novels, newspapers and later the Bible 
A fan of poker, 7 leaf and card games in prime years 
He once love the bottle guy 
He once loved the casinos 
He also once loved my grandma 
But that was all now in the past 

He sang the good oldies 
He talked about great times 
He rejoiced in new life 
And wept at the loss of it 
His hands though a bit shakey 
Were prompt to lend a hand. 

He went to sleep one day 
And rose again no more 
Old age creeped up on him eventually 
And took his breath away In my fathers’ arms he slept 
No more songs so cheery 
No more tales so dearie 
His seat forever empty 
That was my grandpa.

Published by Ples Singsing

Ples Singsing is envisioned to be a new platform for Papua Niuginian expressions of creativity, ingenuity and originality in art and culture. We deliberately highlight these two very broad themes as they can encompass the diverse subjects, from technology, medicine and architecture to linguistics, music, fishing, gardening et cetera. Papua Niuginian ways of thinking, living, believing, communicating, dying and so on can cover the gamut of academic, journalistic or opinionated writing and we believe that unless we give ourselves a platform to talk about and discuss these things in an open, free and non-exclusively academic space that they may remain the fodder for academics, journalists and other types of writers alone. New social media platforms have given every individual a personal space to share their feelings and ideas openly, sometimes without immediate censure. The Ples Singsing writer’s blog would like to provide another more structured platform for Papua Niuginian expressions in written, visual and audio formats while also providing some regulation of the type and content of materials to be shared publicly. View more posts

One thought on “My Grandpa”

Nice story 🙏🏾

I m so glad to read

Pada tanggal Sab, 2 Okt 2021 15.25, Ples Singsing – A PNG Writer’s Blog menulis:

> Ples Singsing posted: ” BY FIDELMA SAEVARU The Old Man, (image) from a > short-story by John Kaupa Kamasua He was four foot three With silver grey > hair free Big rimmed glasses guarded two brown eyes Eyes so cloudy, dimmed > by ages toil. Hard working hands so tough ” >

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One thought on “My Grandpa”

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