She vividly remembers

Those sleepless nights

Lying in bed, tossing and turning 

As she tried to get some sleep

Before it was time for school 

From the next room 

The loud noise of people 

gambling at mahjong, 

the clicking of the pieces 

mixed with outbursts of 

laughing and cursing

lasted all night 

in the morning 

on her way to school  

she passed through the room

filled with thick smoke from smoking

where they were gambling 

Her father’s and other gamblers’ faces

Were transfixed around the mahjong table,

They did not even notice her going 

When she returned from school                 

The gamblers were still there

It was as if they were nailed to the chairs,

The nightmare continued

 

Her father would call her

with bloodshot eyes 

while staring at the mahjong table

asking her to buy food and drink,

She felt that they were addicted, 

Gambling was their way of life

By Shih-Fang Wang

From: United States