lessons from an oyster

Found this poem in the May/June issue of Praxis (the chronicle of the Malaysian Bar) with no credit given, and thought i should share it here with you (given that there don't seem to be any royalty issues). If you are the author of this poem, please drop us a line, - we'll give you credit for it and buy you lunch as a bonus...

Lessons from an Oyster


there once was an oyster
whose story i tell,
who found that some sand
had got into his shell

it was only a grain
but it gave him great pain
for oysters have feelings
although they're so plain



now did he berate the harsh
workings of fate
that had brought him
to such a deplorable state ?

did he curse at the government
cry for election
and claim that the sea should
have given him protection?

"No" he said to himself
as he lay on a shell
since i cannot remove it
i shall try to improve it

now the years have rolled around
as the years always do
and he came to his ultimate destiny, Stew

and the small grain
of sand
that had bothered him so
was a beautiful pearl
all richly aglow




now the tale has a moral
for isn't it grand
what an oyster can do
with a morsel of sand

what couldn't we do
if we'd only begin
with some of the things
that get under our skin...

- the end -

Now wasn't that beautiful? and Powderful? just makes you want to go out there, and do something isn't it? The moral of the story there, obviously was that when things bug you, go out and buy yourself (and me also, if i happen to be in the vicinity) some ice-cream. learn to enjoy the finer things in life like pearls and ice-cream and stop blaming the government for everything... okay?

today has been brought to you by the letters P (for the words pearl, powderful and pontianak) and O (for the word Oyster and obviously). also I is for ice-cream, which we should all have more of at 3pm. Today has also been brought to you by the numbers 3 and 153,454.