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<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=365949" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>The Hand of Tong Bao Lin</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0">I stood in front of the guillotine<br>And paled at the sharpened blade, <br>The motor hummed as my mind went numb<br>And my body shook and swayed, <br>The sweat poured into my open eyes<br>And blinded and burned like sin, <br>But I had no choice, I had to be free<br>Of the Hand of Tong Bao Lin.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">I'd worked in China for seven years<br>In the city of old Qingdao, <br>If I hadn't been such a hero, I <br>Would still be working there now; <br>But I got involved in a scuffle there<br>When a woman was being attacked, <br>He'd snatched her bag and I snatched it too, <br>So he turned on me, and hacked.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">I'd heard of the mean Hand-Chopper Gang, <br>Just petty crims on the whole, <br>They stole whatever was not nailed down, <br>Just handbags, wallets and gold, <br>But they carried machetes under their coats<br>For the woman who fought like mad, <br>If she wouldn't let go, they'd chop off her hand<br>And carry it off with the bag.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">I stood in shock, and stared at my wrist, <br>While he took off, scot free, <br>My hand still clutching the shoulder strap<br>But it wasn't attached to me, <br>I bled all over the pavement there, <br>Collapsed in a bloody heap, <br>I only discovered my hand was gone<br>When I woke from a troubled sleep.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The doctors there were marvellous, <br>They tidied it up no end, <br>But it isn't much consolation when<br>You can't shake hands with a friend, <br>I'd just about been resigned to it<br>When in walked Doctor Chu, <br>He was something to do with the government, <br>Said - 'I need to talk with you! '</div><div style="margin:10px 0">'Let's say that it's just an experiment, <br>Long odds, but you may just win, <br>Get you a working hand again, <br>Though one with a yellow skin.'<br>I signed the form with my one good hand<br>And put myself in his care, <br>If I'd known back then what I know today...<br>I'd have put an axe through his hair! </div><div style="margin:10px 0">They took me away that very night<br>To a place both dread and grim, <br>To one of those Chinese Prisons where<br>You're dead if they let you in.<br>They housed me there in the hospital<br>And treated me better than those, <br>The walking dead in the prison beds<br>Who all wore the orange clothes.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The prison was only for murderers, <br>And those with a capital crime, <br>Whose fate was lead in the back of the head<br>It was only a question of time.<br>I heard men scream as I tried to sleep, <br>And many a Chinese curse, <br>But they filled me full of some sedative, <br>And this only made it worse.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">I dreamt as I slept there fitfully<br>Of a man who was chained to his bed, <br>As the surgeons sliced at his body there, <br>His screams still ring in my head; <br>His face contorted, he looked at me<br>And managed an evil grin, <br>As they surgically took his hand, he said: <br>'You be sorry... I Tong Bao Lin! '</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The fever lasted for days, I think, <br>I thought I'd never wake up, <br>But then one morning my mind was clear<br>And my arm was bandaged up, <br>Slowly, slowly I felt the hand<br>That they'd grafted onto my wrist, <br>I should have been grateful then, I know, <br>But I slowly became obsessed.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">It healed at last, took many months, <br>But it worked, and didn't feel strange, <br>I carried the hand of a dead man now<br>But then it began to change, <br>I found it reached for a woman's purse<br>In a shop where she'd dropped it there, <br>And it gripped it fast when she snatched it back, <br>It was more than I could bear.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">I fled outside in confusion, and<br>Made tracks for a backstreet den, <br>I had no idea what drew me there<br>But found it was opium; <br>They lay around with those long, clay pipes<br>And the hand, it reached for one, <br>I knew right there I would have to share<br>My life with Tong Bao Lin.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The hand, it reached into pockets when<br>I walked on my usual beat, <br>It seemed attracted to shiny things<br>And fondled the girls on the street, <br>It drew me into the thickest crowds<br>Did things that would bring me shame, <br>And I'd thrust it deep in my pocket then<br>For the sake of my own good name.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The hand was marred by a strange tattoo<br>A serpent with wings, on the thumb, <br>When traders saw it they veered away<br>And one of them pulled a gun.<br>I stayed at home and I locked the door<br>And I slowly became depressed, <br>The hand would pound on the wall, the floor<br>And the lid of a rosewood chest.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">A Chinese man came to call one day, <br>Bowed low, and I let him in, <br>In broken English I heard him say: <br>'I lookin' for Tong Bao Lin! '<br>He stared on down at the yellow hand, <br>And looked at the old tattoo, <br>'Bao Lin! ' he pointed, 'an evil man! <br>You know what you have to do! '</div><div style="margin:10px 0">And so, I stand by the guillotine, <br>The sweat pours into my eyes, <br>It takes two buttons to start the blade, <br>There's a demon to exorcise.<br>I place my wrist on the cutting line<br>And the man says, 'Let's begin! '<br>I push the button, and so does he, <br>The brother of Tong Bao Lin.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br /></a><br />poem by <a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/by.php?a=David+Lewis+Paget">David Lewis Paget</a><div class=q>
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<script type="text/javascript" src="//s7.addthis.com/js/300/addthis_widget.js#pubid=citatepedia" async="async"></script><div style="display:inline-block" class="addthis_sharing_toolbox" data-url="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=365949" data-title="The Hand of Tong Bao Lin de David Lewis Paget" data-description="I stood in front of the guillotine
And paled at the sharpened blade, 
The motor hummed as my mind went numb
And my body shook and swayed, 
The sweat poured into my open eyes
And blinded and burned like sin, 
But I had no choice, I had to be free
O..."></div>
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