On my father's side,
We were once well-to-do,
However, by the time father was born,
The family had lost everything.
Father was also the third child.
He had two older brothers.
And used to have two older sisters,
But both had passed on earlier in life,
Due to chronic diabetes.
Grandfather owned a tea manufacturing plant.
They sold all types of tea leaves.
Occasionally, they would drop
A gold coin Into the tea packets.
Our tea bags, suddenly turned
Into lottery tickets.
One day Grandfather decided
to take on a second wife.
From that day and onward,
Grandmother started to gamble.
Her gambling got worse as the days pass.
Eventually, there was nothing left.
They couldn't even take care of father,
They sent him to live
With a distant uncle.
During those early years,
He would go to school during the day.
In the evening he would work,
Folding tea bags into the night.
Once I had a glimpse of a photograph
Of father when he was ten years old.
He was the only kid in the group
that wore a black shirt.
The rest wore all white.
I figured it was because the family,
Was too poor to buy him white shirts.
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