A week before Mid Term
This Primary 4 fat gumborlor
of a Yuen Long Catholic School
Daddy tied down by factories in China
Mommy by the accounts in the HK office
was given private tutorial
7 hours a day, 7 days a week
to guarantee good results
She can come as many days as she likes
And stay as long as she wishes
Just to scare him to work
His tender skin can be given lashes
his ear can be cut

Homework from school: 7
homework from tutor: 11
never ending assignments
arithmatics, extra exercises and copying of vocabulary he already knows

Telephone rings
the boy shakes
his face pales
his toys still in his hands
his games not finished
the lines he's written: two
the assignments and pages he is supposed to finish: no ideas

tutor called
maid answered

Where's the boy?
Gone to play!

Where?
Feeding fish with his mom in the Garden

Homework completed?
None! His mom took him away for a break once she got home.

How many whips he's gonna receive this time?
Nobody dare ask
Not even the grandmother
who fed him bird's nest and cried over his three red lashes

My daughter's rich cousin
came third with a tutor,
twenty-something or bottom without
a bright smart avid reader of books with pictures