The+African+Beggar

__//**The African Beggar**// **- Raymond Tong**__ Sprawled in the dust outside the Syrian store, a target for small children, dogs and flies, a heap of verminous rags and matted hair, he watches us with cunning reptile eyes, his noiseless, smallpoxed face creased in a snear.

Sometimes he shows his yellow stumps of teeth and whines for alms, percieving that we bear the curse of pity; a grotesque mask of death, with hands like claws about his begging bowl.

But often he is lying all alone within the shadow of a crumbling wall, lost in the trackless jungle of his pain, clutching the pitiless red earth in vain and whimpering like a striken animal.

//**Raymond Tong**//